Mumbai: Stock markets retreated Wednesday on fresh bouts of selling in select frontline heavyweights as the benchmark Nifty shed by 46 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here.
Extreme caution ahead of April derivatives expiry tomorrow and outcome of the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meet kept the market on a shaky ground.
A flurry of corporate earnings including the telecom giant Bharti Airtel and HDFC even failed to enthuse investors sentiment despite better-than-expected Q4 earnings.
Poor quarterly earnings by corporate India as well as sustained unwinding by foreign portfolio investors amid fresh worries on retrospective taxes along with delay in clearing major reforms bill also weighed on sentiments.
Though, the key indices rebounded to trade briefly in positive terrain, it succumbed to fresh bout of selling towards the fag-end trade.
The broader 50-share index fluctuated between a high of 8,308.20 and a low of 8,219.20 before closing at 8,239.75, a fall of 45.85 points, or 0.55 percent.
Among the sectoral indices, FMCG, Infra, Energy, Metal and Auto ended with big losses, despite some frontline stocks making good gains.
However, Banking sector continued its steady performance supported by robust earnings outcome along with Healthcare, Technology and Realty. Mid-cap and Small-cap gained modestly, outperforming the benchmarks.
Contributing to sessions volatility included heavyweights such as ITC, HDFC, Idea, Reliance, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, L&T, Maruti, Vedanta, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints, TCS, M&M, Dr Reddys, Power Grid, ACC, ONGC, BPCL and SBI.
The key gainers were Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, HCL-Tech, Wipro, Ambuja Cement, Lupin TechM, Gail, Yes Bank, Indusind Bank, Hero MotoCo, NTPC and Infosys.
Sugar stocks were in limelight following government decision to hike import duty on the sweetner to 40 percent, from 25 percent and remove excise duty on ethanol.
Meanwhile, overseas investors remained net sellers as they sold shares worth of Rs 1,532.84 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Elsewhere in the region, most equities ended lower ahead of much awaited Federal Reserve's meet outcome later in the day.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 16,801.59 crore from Rs 19,098.84 crore yesterday. A total of 7,384.64 lakh shares changed hands in 74,92,585 trades. The total market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 9,716,441 crore.
