Sensex ends marginally lower in volatile trade

In volatile trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex closed marginally lower on selling in heavyweight stocks mainly in the capital goods sector.

The Sensex, which moved between 15,834.05 and 15,297.96, closed lower by 17.82 points at 15,626.62 on emergence of selling particularly in BHEL, Larsen and Toubro, Lakshmi Machines and Work, and Crompton Greeves.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index, Nifty, however gained 5.05 points at 4,739.55. It touched the day's high of 4,800.75 and low of 4,628.75 points.

The major pull to the market came in from capital good stocks following reports that manufacturing in March grew at a slowest in eight months.

Bharat Heavy Electricals, the largest maker of thermal power equipment, declined the most in more than two weeks. Larsen and Toubro, the nation's largest engineering company, slid for a second day. BHEL stocks fell by Rs 164.70 at Rs 1,891.85 and L&T by Rs 130.05 at Rs 2,894.75.