Mumbai, Feb 27 : Indian stock markets on Thursday remained range-bound, with the benchmark indices trading in a narrow range as cautious sentiment continued to dominate the investors.

The Sensex fluctuated between a high of 74,834 and a low of 74,521 during intra-day trade, before closing almost unchanged at 74,612, gaining just 10 points.

Similarly, the Nifty moved within a 100-point range, touching a high of 22,613 and a low of 22,508, before settling nearly flat at 22,545 on its expiry.

Nifty remained range bound during the day before closing flat. Sellers continued to dominate the market at higher levels.

'On the lower end, 22,500 continues to act as support, similar to how 22,800 did a few days ago. We expect Nifty to decline towards 22,200 and lower if it falls below 22,500,' said Rupak De from LKP Securities.

Among the Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv led the gains, rising over 2 per cent each.

IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Zomato, and Axis Bank also saw gains of over 1 per cent each during the intra-day trading session.

However, UltraTech Cement suffered a sharp decline of nearly 5 per cent after announcing its entry into the wires and cables business.

Other major losers included Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, and NTPC.

The broader market faced selling pressure, with the BSE MidCap index dropping 1 per cent and the SmallCap index slipping more than 2 per cent.

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) saw strong buying interest during the session.

Stocks like CreditAccess Grameen, L&T Finance, and Mahindra & Mahindra Finance rallied up to 15 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced risk weights on MFI loans and loans given to NBFCs.

Investors remained uncertain about market direction, leading to subdued participation in equities.

Rupee traded flat near 87.17 after experiencing high volatility, weakening to 87.54 before recovering to 87.10.

'The session ended on a neutral note as the dollar index remained range-bound, and FII sell-off was countered by DII inflows, stabilising the secondary markets,' Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst - Commodity and Currency, LKP Securities said.

He added that going forward, rupee movement will depend on global cues, dollar momentum, and oil price trends.

/IANS