Mumbai, Dec 23 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Monday's trade flat, as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to be net buyers in the market despite US Federal Reserve's plan for a $10 billion tapering of its bond buying programme.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,080.54 points, closed at 21,101.03 points -- up 21.31 points or 0.10 percent from its previous day's close at 21,079.72 points.

The benchmark touched a high of 21,207.89 intra-day and a low of 21,059.12 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Monday's trade 10.25 points or 0.16 percent up at 6,284.50 points.

In Monday's trade healthy buying was observed in metal, capital goods and bank stocks. However, information technology (IT) and technology, entertainment and media (TECk) sectors scrip plummeted.

The S&P BSE metal index was up 148.19 points followed by capital goods index which gained 130.14 points and bank index was 102.93 points higher. However, IT index was down 88.29 points and TECk index was down 41.66 points lower.

Major Sensex gainers were: Hindalco Inds, up 3.69 percent at Rs.123.50; BHEL, up 2.17 percent at Rs.169.15; Hero MotoCorp, 1.67 percent at Rs.2,162.90; ONGC, up 1.48 percent at Rs.288.55; and Tata Steel, up 1.28 percent at Rs.423.20.

The main losers were: Infosys, down 2.35 percent at Rs.3,468.65; Tata Power, down 1.71 percent at Rs.89.05; HDFC, down 1.22 percent at Rs.790.35; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 0.47 percent at Rs.2,109.60; and Mahindra and Mahindra, down 0.44 percent at Rs.965.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.07 percent up and China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.24 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.48 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.29 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.43 percent and the French CAC 40 Index gained by 0.04 percent.

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