The Sensex which had rallied almost 1440 points in morning trade ended the day higher by only 216 points. The Nifty which had hit a high of as much as 7559 points in trade, closed at 7293 points - just 79 points higher.

Banking stocks were the clear winners in trade with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Kotak Bank leading gainers. PSU banks were the stars in trade gaining anywhere between 5-15 per cent with Canara Bank, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and Andhra Bank among the winners.

Other Nifty gainers were Grasim, Larsen and Toubro, Bhel and BPCL. Stocks that exerted pressure on the indices were heavyweights including Infosys, TCS and ITC. Other stocks that dropped from the Nifty were Wipro and Hindustan Unilever.

Today's fall mostly in the IT sector was largely on sharp gains recorded in the rupee.

Action also shifted to select mid cap stocks with Bharat Forge, HPCL, Oriental Bank, Jain Irrigation and Sun TV Network among the winners.

Real estate stocks were also in the action with Indiabulls jumping 19 per cent, Oberoi Realty 5 per cent and Unitech gaining 6 per cent.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia ended the day mixed, while most of the markets in Europe were trading with losses.

GoodReturns.in