Amid inflation soaring to 16-month high in February, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex

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today closed flat at 17,164.99 points discarding reports of good health of India Inc as reflected in their advance tax payments for March quarter.

After a highly volatile trade, the 30-share Sensex closed 1.63 points, or 0.01 per cent, down at 17,164.99 points.

Higher tax payments by corporate saw the Sensex smartly recovering early losses of over 100 points, but unrelenting inflation did not help lift the sentiment further.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty ended lower by 8.10 points at 5,128.90 points.

Brokers said the sentiment turned volatile after the official data showed that inflation rose to 9.89 per cent in February, forcing major players to adopt a cautious approach even reducing their positions at prevailing higher levels.

In the 30 BSE index counters, 15 ended with gains. Among sectoral indices, IT, teck and FMCG ended in the positive zone with gains up to 1.37 per cent, while PSU, banking and capital goods stocks ended in the negative zone.

Among IT stocks, Wipro rose 2.71 per cent to Rs 727.75, Infosys by 1.07 per cent to Rs 2,701.20, TCS by 2.27 per cent to Rs 814.80 and HCL Tech by 2.70 per cent to Rs 369.35.

Asian stocks today ended weak. Key indices from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan closed in the red. European markets were trading feeble in their morning deals.

Markets @ 12.00 PM

Erasing early losses, the Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark Sensex recovered to trade over 12 points higher at mid-session on fresh buying in stocks such as Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies.

The 30-share Sensex, which lost over 105 points in the early morning trade, bounced back to trade 12.39 points, or 0.07 per cent higher at 17,179.01 at mid-session.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty, however was remained in negative zone with a marginal fall of 3 points at 5,134.

Brokers said covering-up of short positions by speculators and fresh buying in heavy-weight stocks helped Sensex to trade in positive territory.

The most-weighted Reliance Industries traded 0.66 per cent higher at Rs 1,028, while Infosys Technologies recovered by 0.46 per cent at Rs 2,685 after dipping to Rs 2,635.05 in the opening trade.

Markets @ 10.00 AM (Reuters)

The BSE Sensex was trading lower on Monday, tailing weak Asian markets, with financials leading the decline ahead of the inflation data for February.

India's wholesale price index probably rose 9.62 percent in February from a year earlier, a Reuters poll of 21 economists showed.

Top lender State Bank of India dropped 0.9 percent while leading private sector lender ICICI Bank shed 1.8 percent.

Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp declined 0.9 percent. HDFC Bank bucked the trend and edged 0.3 percent higher.

By 10:06 a.m. (0436 GMT), the 30-share BSE index was trading down 0.36 percent at 17,104.23, with 19 of its components declining.

"Asian markets are weak. Also, there is no news flow to move the market," said Neeraj Dewan, director of Quantum Securities.

"Inflation and advance tax numbers should provide some cues," he added.

Corporate advance tax payment figures for the quarter ending March are expected to trickle in later in the day, giving a brief idea about their report cards in the period.

Investors were cautious after the benchmark rose for five straight weeks to March 12.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies declined 0.1 percent. The stock has outperformed the main index so far this year with a 2.5 percent rise while the latter dropped 2 percent.

Top vehicle maker Tata Motors climbed 0.2 percent after a senior executive told Reuters the company plans to offset rising commodity prices through price increases and trimming costs.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp was down 1.3 percent after a senior company official said the state-run explorer's domestic oil output is seen at 24.9 million tonnes in the current financial year ending March, lower than the 25.76 million tonnes target.

In the broader market, declining shares outnumbered advancing ones in a ratio of 1.2:1 in volume of 64 million shares.

Asian stocks fell from near seven-week highs on Monday after weak U.S. consumer confidence data overshadowed strong retail numbers and curbed demand for risky assets.

The 50-share NSE index was down 0.4 percent at 5,114.35.

Markets @ 09.00 AM (PTI)

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell over 77 points to 17,088.95 in the opening trade today as investors sold stocks amid weakening trend on the other Asian bourses.

The 30-share index, which shed 1.34 points in the previous session, drifted by 77.67 points, or 0.45 per cent to 17,088.95 points in the opening trade.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also declined by 34.80 points, or 0.67 per cent to 5,102.20 points.

Brokers said weakening trend on the Asian stock markets mainly dampened the trading sentiments here, triggering selling by foreign funds.

Besides, profit-booking by retail investors as Sensex has gone up by nearly 8 per cent in just over one month also led to fall in stock prices, they added.

Among losers were Reliance Industries down 0.26 per cent to Rs 1,018.55, Infosys Technologies 1.11 per cent to Rs 2,643, Tata Consultancy Services 0.21 per cent to Rs 795.10, ICICI Bank 1.14 per cent to Rs 926.20, State Bank of India 0.81 per cent to Rs 2,029 and Sterlite Industries 0.47 per cent to Rs 824.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.88 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei was down 0.20 per cent in the morning trade today.