New Delhi, May 23 (IANS): Indian equity benchmark indices traded sideways on Monday and settled largely steady.

Sensex closed at 54,288.61 points, down 37.78 points or 0.07 per cent, whereas Nifty was at 16,214.70 points, down 51.45 points or 0.32 per cent.

Among the individual stocks, Mahindra and Mahindra was the top gainer at 4.1 per cent, while JSW Steel was the top loser at 13.2 per cent among the Nifty50 companies.

"Markets gave up all its gains in the afternoon trade today as it simply could not recover after the export tax imposed on steel products with the metal index falling almost 9 per cent to 5200 levels in the morning trade," said S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities.

The prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict coupled with its consequences and inflationary pressures weighed heavily in the minds of investors and traders.

"Prospects of additional market borrowings by the GOI in the wake of the tax cuts on fuel to tame inflation also came to the forefront."

Amidst rising energy prices and inflation, the Central excise duty on petrol has been cut by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre, reducing the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre.

The duty cut will have a revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh crore per year for the government.