Mumbai: The stock markets failed to leverage the early momentum, but managed to close a little higher at 28,334 ahead of IIP numbers even as other Asian bourses closed at 18-month high amid a higher opening in Europe.
Lacklustre quarterly readings of a few Nifty constituents made sentiment depressed. On top of it, a rush to take profit towards the close of the session washed out much of the initial gains.
The Sensex after opening higher climbed to a high of 28,456.18, but hit a low of 28,286.80 before ending up 4.55 points, or 0.02 percent, at 28,334.25.
The gauge had gained 39.78 points yesterday.
The broader NSE Nifty, which recaptured the 8,800-mark and touched a high of 8,822.10 intra-day, finally finished at 8,793.55, up 15.15 points, or 0.17 percent.
There was a rally in global markets on upbeat Chinese trade data and an overnight record close in the US markets after President Donald Trump promised to unveil tax cuts soon.
However, investors turned cautious before release of key macro data -- industrial production (IIP) for December.
For the third straight week, the Sensex recorded a rise -- this time, 93.73 points, or 0.33 percent -- while the Nifty gained 52.60 points, or 0.60 percent, respectively.
In the the 30-share Sensex pack, 15 ended higher. TCS took the top spot, surging 3.12 percent to Rs 2,396.70 followed by Adani Ports 2.23 percent at Rs 311.25.
Shares of country's largest lender SBI ended up 0.15 percent at Rs 276.25 after it posted a 71 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,152.2 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.
Other big movers of the day are Infosys (2.10 percent), Tata Steel (1.71 percent), NTPC (1.22 percent), L&T (0.81 percent), Coal India (0.79 percent), Axis Bank (0.73 percent) and Bharti Airtel 0.63 percent.
Among sectoral indices, IT rose the most by 2.06 percent followed by technology 1.61 percent, capital goods 0.42 percent, bank 0.24 percent and power 0.12 percent.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 356.63 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Broader markets displayed a mixed trend as the BSE small-cap index rose 0.14 percent while mid-cap index fell 0.28 percent.
Japan's Nikkei climbed 2.49 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.21 percent while Shanghai Composite surged 0.42 percent.
Europe was trading in the positive terrain too in the early session, with the UK's FTSE, Frankfurt's DAX and Paris' CAC advancing by up to 0.41 percent.
