Indian benchmark indexes, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty50 ended Wednesday's choppy session on a flat note, settling a tad lower.

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NSE

At the close, the Sensex was down 1.25 points at 35591.25, while the Nifty was down 0.40 points at 10651.80.

Investor sentiment remained cautious ahead of Friday's interim budget and other major global cues such as US Federal Reserve policy meeting outcome and US-China trade talks.

Broader market outperformed with the Nifty MidCap rising over half a percent and the BSE MidCap settled 0.22 percent up.

Among sectoral gauges, energy, FMCG and pharma traded under selling pressure, while buying was seen in bank, IT and metal counters.

ICICI Bank

surged 5.5 percent, contributing 250 points to the Nifty Bank gains, which outperformed frontline indexes, rising by almost a percent. The bank is due to declare its third quarter results later in the day and analysts are expecting a strong set of numbers.

Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Hindalco and HCL Technologies were other major gainers, rising between 3 percent and 5.5 percent.

Indiabulls Housing Finance, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, HDFC, Yes Bank and ITC shares declined between 1.4 percent and 4 percent.

Bajaj Auto slipped 2.65 percent despite posting a 15.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 1,101.9 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018 on higher sales of motorcycle units in the domestic market.

The company reported a revenue growth of Rs 7,409.4 crore in the quarter ending December 2018. The EBITDA for the same period was reported at Rs 1,156 crore.

Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) reported nearly 91 percent slump in quarterly profit on Wednesday, as a plunge in global crude prices took a toll on margins of oil refiners and marketing companies.

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