Mumbai: Equities succumbed to fresh bout of profit-booking after a breathtaking three-day rally and the Nifty fell below the key 8,300-mark amid concerns over global growth and continuous slide in crude prices.
A sharp rebound in industrial growth and better-than expected inflation data even failed to lift the sentiment.
However, losses were limited due to good low level buying support as well as expectations that the central bank would cut rates in early February against the backdrop of improving macroeconomic outlook.
Despite a positive start, bourses suddenly turned highly volatility in last hour of trade as retail investors took money off the table in recent out-performers.
Meanwhile, country's industrial growth rebounded to a surprise five-month high of 3.8 percent in November, while consumer inflation accelerated modestly in December, according to government figures released late yesterday.
After opening higher at 8,346.15, the broader 50-share index swung widely between a high of 8,356.65 and low 8,267.90 before finishing at 8,299.40, showing a fall of 23.60 points, or 0.28 percent.
Elsewhere, the Asian equities ended mixed on worries over falling oil prices amid positive trade data from the world's second-largest economy, China.
Sectorally, barring FMCG and healthcare, all other indices ended in the negative terrain even as Midcap and Smallcap.
Energy and resources were the hardest hit led by heavy weights like ONGC, Reliance, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, Cairn and Tata Steel.
Otber major laggards included ICICI Bank, Infosys, L&T, HDFC, HUL, HDFC Bank, TCS, SBI, Tata Motors, Heromotoco, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, BPCL and Sun Pharma.
On the gainers side, UltraTech Cement topped the buying list, surging 4.38 percent followed by Asian Paints, Grasim, ITC, Kotak Bank, Wipro, M&M, Axis Bank, ACC, Cipla, HCL-Tech and Ambuja Cements.
Turnover in the cash segment jumped to Rs 16,945.63 crore against Rs 14,485.3 crore yesterday. A total of 7,989.04 lakh shares changed hands in 75,13,948 trades and the market capitalisation stood at Rs 96,44,033 crore.
