Benchmark end almost flat, Nifty ends below 24,150, Asian Paints drops 8%

The domestic equity benchmarks ended almost flat with negative bias on Monday, marking a third consecutive day of losses. While IT and banking stocks provided some support, weakness in auutos, metals and FMCG dragged the indices down. The Nifty 50 index, after reaching an intraday high of 24,336.80, settled below the 24,150 mark. The index opened lower but bounced from the 24,000 level. However, the recovery was short-lived, as selling pressure emerged in the afternoon session.