Nifty snaps 8-day winning streak; midcaps, smallcaps shine

Indian equity benchmarks snapped eight-day winning streak on Friday to close the session on a flat note with a negative bias.

Indices were in a consolidation mode since the beginning of trade today, which was imminent after that 1600 points rally on the Sensex in previous eight sessions. Foreign institutional investors had bought more than USD 2 billion worth of shares in previous eight days.

Experts were expected profit booking today but that happened only in select stocks. Financial and technology companies' shares witnessed profit booking. Heavyweights Reliance Industries, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, HUL and L&T too were on sellers' radar.

However, metal, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and select auto companies' shares were witnessed buying interest. Heavyweights BHEL, ONGC, HDFC and ITC too were quite supportive.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell just 24.83 points, to close at 19,420.39 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 7.7 points, to settle at 5,826.05.

But the broader indices smartly outpaced the benchmarks - the BSE Midcap Index jumped 1.6% and Smallcap up rallied 2.2%. Breadth was quite strong - about 1048 shares advanced as against 260 shares declined on the National Stock Exchange.