Indian markets began the March series on a firm footing, with the Nifty opening above 25,500 and trading in positive territory for most of the session, touching an intraday high of 25,652.60. However, profit booking in the afternoon session wiped out the early gains, leading the benchmark to close on a flat note.

At close, the Sensex was up 50.15 points or 0.06 percent at 82,276.07, and the Nifty was up 57.85 points or 0.23 percent at 25,482.50.

Broader indices outperformed the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap index gaining 0.5% and the Smallcap index rising 1%.

SBI, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries were among major losers on the Nifty, while gainers were Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Auto, Shriram Finance, Adani Enterprises.

On the sectoral front, auto, healthcare, IT, metal, pharma up 1-2 percent, while telecom index down 1%, FMCG, PSU Bank down 0.4% each.

In stock specific action, Schaeffler India share price added 3% as profit rises 35%, Waaree Energies share price slipped 10% despite LoA to develop 300 MW wind power project, SpiceJet share price rose 6% after 8.4% equity traded in a block, Indian Railway Finance Corporation shares fell 4% as government to sell up to 2% stake.

Aditya Infotech shares added 7% as promoters, Dixon Tech likely to sell stake via block deal, Univastu India shares rose 5% on order win of Rs 485 crore.

More than 100 stocks touched their 52-week high, including Graphite India, KEI Industries, SAIL, Tata Steel, Polycab, Bank of Maharashtra, Bajaj Auto, GE Vernova TD, Ajanta Pharma, GE Shipping, among others.

More than 300 stocks touched their 52-week low, including IRFC, Firstsource Solutions, Hexaware Technologies, Cello World, Suzlon Energy, Afcons Infra, Vedant Fashions, Just Dial, Cyient, Network 18, among others.