Nifty ends with modest loss; RIL, TCS, Wipro, L&T slip

Equity benchmarks slipped into red in last one and half hours of trade and closed with modest losses, dragged by heavyweights like Reliance Industries, TCS, Wipro, L&T, Maruti and Hero Honda along with financial companies' shares. The Nifty ended below the 6000-mark while the Sensex held the 20000 level.

However, buying in Bharti Airtel, ONGC, ITC, Tata Motors and M&M along with select power and select companies' shares capped downside.

Overall it was a consolidation day for markets. Ambareesh Baliga of Karvy Stock Broking expects markets to be rangebound for a while. ''I think crossing 6050 will be difficult for the market,'' he felt. 

He advised investors to start booking profits at the current levels. ''It is prudent to book out at this point of time,'' he said adding, ''We could see levels of closer to 5,800-5,825 over the next two weeks.''

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,015.80, down 44.52 points or 0.22% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 16.25 points or 0.27% to settle at 5,984.40 from previous closing value.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries dragged the Nifty in red; tanked 1.6% as company's production cost is all set to go up due to falling gas output, reports CNBC-TV18. RIL sources inform that the D1D3 production cost has come in nearly 40% higher than projected. The current production at D1D3 is at about 49 mmscmd. Earlier, RIL had a target of 80 mmscmd in 2010.