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