Market takes a muted line as poll results loom

Investors chose to sit tight today as the Sensex remained in the bearish territory for the second day, dropping further by 98 points, and anxiety concerning state poll results and a probable Fed rate hike grew.

Exit poll numbers will start trickling in tomorrow and the final results are due Saturday. There is also some concern that the US Federal Reserve may raise borrowing costs next week.

The BSE Sensex hit a low of 28,815.48 before settling down 97.62 points, or 0.34 per cent at 28,901.94. The NSE Nifty closed lower by 22.60 points, or 0.25 per cent at 8,924.30.

Mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 0.56 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively, on sustained selling pressure from retail investors.

European markets were mixed in reaction to Germany data showing industrial production growing 2.8 per cent in January. Investors waited for Britain's budget. Europe threw up a similar trend.

Foreign funds bought shares net worth Rs 920.46 crore yesterday, as per the provisional figures. Tata Steel suffered the most by diving 1.89 per cent, followed by ONGC 1.78 per cent. Infosys, GAIL, RIL, M&M, Coal India and Tata Motors also fell.

On the contrary, SBI, TCS, PowerGrid, Cipla, HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma ended higher. MTNL today soared 16.04 per cent following reports of a renewed discussion of its merger with BSNL.

Metal suffered maximum losses, down 1.91 per cent, followed by realty, oil and gas and PSU. Japanese stocks led the regional decline, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose.