Mumbai, Jul 11 (IANS): Indian equity benchmarks closed flat on Thursday following a volatile session.

At closing, Sensex was at 79,897, down 27 points and Nifty was down 8 points, at 24,315.

During the day, the buying trend was seen in midcap and smallcap stocks rather than largecap stocks.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 57,148, up 227 points or 0.40 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 18,919, up 129 points or 0.69 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, 16 stocks closed with gains and 14 stocks in the red.

ITC, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Titan, SBI, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, and HCL Tech were the top gainers. Bajaj Finance, M&M, Sun Pharma, Nestle, NTPC, and Power Grid were the top losers.

The market had started flat in the trading session.

Sensex touched a high of 80,170 and a low of 79,464 during trading hours.

Among the sectoral indices, Media, PSE, Commodity, and Oil & Gas indices were major gainers. Realty, pharma, and auto were the major laggards.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities said: "The Nifty remained volatile throughout the day before closing flat. In the near term, the Nifty might trade sideways, with 24,150 and 24,400 acting as the key levels. A decisive fall below 24,150 might trigger panic in the market, while a decisive move above 24,400 might induce a rally towards 24,650."