RIL drags BSE SENSEX | NIFTY closes in red

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed at 17406.71, down 120 points or 0.68 per cent. The index touched a high of 17612 and low of 17392.55.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at 5205.35, down 44.05 points or 0.84 per cent. The 50-share index hit a high of 5300.50 and low of 5200.95.

BSE Midcap Index closed 1.19 per cent lower and BSE Smallcap Index slipped 1.11 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index was down 3.05 per cent, BSE Metal Index slipped 2.29 per cent and BSE Bankex slipped 1.97 per cent. BSE IT Index was up 3.70 per cent.

Shares of IT sector were buzzing on the back of encouraging results from Infosys Technologies. The company reported 2.29 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1471 crore for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2009 as against Rs 1438 crore in the sequential period, way ahead of analyst expectations. Net sales were reported at Rs 5335 crore for the Dec quarter compared with Rs. 5201 crore in the previous quarter.