Stock market closes flat with negative bias; Nifty end above 17,100, Sensex shed 76 points - Banking, auto shares drag most

Domestic equity markets erased all the gains in the late afternoon after trading positive most part of the session on Friday to close flat with negative bias. The markets closed in the red second time in a row. The broader Nifty50 held on to 17,100-mark after declining from day's high of 17, 337.50, while the Sensex ended 77 points lower after touching 58,084.33 in the afternoon amid profit booking.

The Nifty and the Sensex closed at 17,101.95 and 57,200.23 respectively after being pulled down by auto and banking and financial services stocks on Friday.  

 ''After the decent opening post yesterday’s weak closing, domestic bourses again staged a quick sell-off, tracking weak European trend. Policy tightening by the US Fed and rising geopolitical tensions in Ukraine coloured global sentiments. The broad market ended mixed considering IT, realty and Mid & Smallcaps reboundes after continuous heavy-selling this week,'' said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

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Maruti, Powergrid, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy's declined the most.  

NTPC, UPL, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer, Mahindra and Mahindra, Wipro, ITC, Bharti Airtel and TCS gained on Friday.   

In the broader market, Nify Small Cap and Midcap indices outperformed benchmarks as the indices ended 1-1.5% higher.