Mumbai: Stocks moved in a choppy fashion on the major Indian bourses today as investors appeared somewhat clueless about the direction the market would take in the near term. With a long weekend ahead and the reporting season about to start, buying remained highly stock specific during the final session of financial year 2009-2010. The chart showing the 52 week performance of Sensex is on the left. The Sensex, which rose to 17,699.50 in early trades, but dropped down to around 17,488 during the closing minutes, ended the day at 17,527.77 with a loss of 62.40 points or 0.35 percent. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange settled at 5249.10, netting a loss of 13.35 points or 0.25 percent. The Nifty touched a high of 5293.90 and a low of 5235.15 during the session. Select pharmaceuticals, power and PSU stocks ended on the positive side. Realty stocks opened well and traded firm for nearly three hours before encountering some stiff resistance and sliding down to lower levels. Metal and bank stocks ended on a mixed note. Capital goods and oil stocks failed to retain early gains, while information technology and FMCG stocks remained weak almost right through the session. Despite a good start, midcap and smallcap stocks gave up most of their gains due to lack of support at higher levels. HDFC ended with a sharp gain of 2.85 percent, Reliance Communications gained 2.65 percent, NTPC, Sun Pharmaceuticals and HDFC Bank moved up by 1.3-2 percent. Wipro, Maruti Suzuki and Reliance Infrastructure posted modest gains. ONGC and Sterlite Industries ended marginally higher. Bharti Airtel, which shot up to 319.50 in early trades after the company said it has entered into a legally binding definitive agreement with Zain Group to acquire Zain Africa BV based on an enterprise valuation of $10.7 billion, ended the day with a small gain at 311.90.