Sensex and Nifty, the two key domestic equity benchmarks, on Wednesday snapped their four-day winning run due to profit booking in IT, FMCG and banking shares following weak global trends and persistent foreign capital outflows amid volatility.
The BSE Sensex ended 150 points (0.28 per cent) lower at 53,026 as 20 of its stocks ended with losses. The Sensex tumbled 564 to 52,612 ahead of the expiry in the derivatives segment on Thursday. The NSE Nifty declined 51 points (0.32 per cent) to 15,799, with 34 of its constituents closing in the red.
On the 30-share BSE platform, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Bajaj Finance were the major laggards. On the flipside, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, and ITC restricted a major fall in the barometer.
In the broader markets, the BSE SmallCap index settled wee bit in the red, while the BSE MidCap index fell 0.7 per cent.
Sectorally, most of the indices closed with losses barring the Nifty Oil and Gas index (up 0.9 per cent). The Nifty IT, Bank, and FMCG indices dropped over 1 per cent each.
"Markets traded volatile for yet another session and lost nearly half a percent. Weak global cues were weighing on the sentiment in early trade which triggered a gap-down start however buying in select index majors trimmed the losses as the day progressed," Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.
In their previous session on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex rose 16 points (0.03 per cent) to close at 53,177, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 18 points (0.11 per cent) up to settle at 15,850.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong ended lower. European markets were also trading lower in mid-session deals. The US markets also ended lower on Tuesday.
"Consumer confidence is declining rapidly due to the uncontrolled & constant rise in inflation. India had to bear the double-whammy effect of a dampening global equity market and rising crude prices as major suppliers like Saudi are unable to boost the output in the short-term. However, the domestic market was able to recover most of the losses due to the strong movement of index heavyweights, PSUs, metals and oil & gas stocks before slipping some gains by the end of the day due to volatile global market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.31 per cent to $118.3 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 1,244.44 crore on Tuesday, as per exchange data.