India's bluechip Nifty 50 index will remain flat this year, which would be its worst performance in seven years, and underperform other emerging markets and debt, BofA Global Research said.

BofA cut its year-end target for the Nifty 50 by 8.3% to 18,000 points, expecting the index to be volatile and trade between 16,000 and 18,000 levels for the year. (Reporting by Aniruddha Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)