In a highly choppy session, equity benchmarks pared early gains to settle on a flat note on Monday, with the Sensex falling 38 points amid a heavy sell-off in metal stocks.
The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex encountered volatility during the day and settled 37.78 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 54,288.61. During the day, it hit a high of 54,931.30 and a low of 54,191.55.
The broader NSE Nifty declined 51.45 points or 0.32 per cent to end at 16,214.70.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel tumbled the most by 12.53 per cent, followed by UltraTech Cement, ITC, Power Grid, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies and Reliance Industries.
In contrast, M&M, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paints and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the gainers.
"Nifty once again gave up the intra day gains and ended in the negative. Metals stocks sold off post the levy of export duties over the weekend on iron ore and some steel intermediates," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
Meanwhile, Asian markets in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo ended higher, while Hong Kong settled lower. Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mostly higher in the afternoon session. Stock markets in the US had ended on a mixed note on Friday.
International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 1.15 per cent to USD 113.8 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,265.41 crore on Friday, as per stock exchange data.
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