Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty pared most of early losses to close marginally down on Monday amid persistent foreign fund outflows and weak global trends.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed lower by 54.30 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 85,213.36. The benchmark opened lower and declined further by 427.34 points, or 0.50 per cent, to hit a low of 84,840.32, but value buying in FMCG and IT shares in the second half helped cut losses.
The 50-share NSE Nifty edged lower by 19.65 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 26,027.30.
Among Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra fell the most by 1.94 per cent. Bajaj Finserv fell by 0.79 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 0.71 per cent. Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Power Grid and HDFC Bank were also among the laggards. However, Hindustan Unilever surged the most by 1.42 per cent. Trent, HCL Tech, Asian Paints, and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
The BSE smallcap gauge climbed 0.41 per cent and midcap index went up by 0.16 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, telecom declined 0.90 per cent, followed by auto (0.87 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.25 per cent), financial services (0.11 per cent). However, FMCG climbed 0.56 per cent, followed by services (0.51 per cent), industrials (0.50 per cent), consumer durables (0.46 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.31 per cent) and IT (0.31 per cent).