Mumbai: Indian stocks sold off sharply in late trade Wednesday after hitting new peaks with Sensex ending 130 points down at 28,032.85 and Nifty slipping 44 points to end below 8,400 mark on profit-booking and weak global cues.
Fall in metal, power, refinery, realty, banking and auto stocks mainly weighed on market sentiment after the BSE Sensex hit new lifetime high of 28,294.01 and NSE Nifty logged fresh peak of 8,455.65 on intra-day basis.
This is the second day indices have closed with a loss after hitting new highs. The local currency also appeared to be having a bad session with the rupee trading within a sniffing distance of 62-level against US dollar.
The S&P BSE Benchmark Sensex resumed better and improved further to an all-time high of 28,294.01 before succumbing on profit-selling to end down by 130.44 points, or 0.46 percent, at 28,032.85. Yesterday, it was down by 14.59 points.
The wider 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE dipped by 43.60 points, or 0.52 percent, to end at 8,382.30. It registered an intra-trade historic high of 8,455.65 today. Yesterday, it had edged lower by 4.85 points.
"Markets remained in a very narrow range for most part of the trading session and corrected in last 90 minutes," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio.
Tata Motors, RIL, ONGC, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, SBI, Sesa Sterlite, M&M, NTPC, BHEL and Coal India mainly kept markets under pressure.
Rise in HDFC, Dr Reddy's, L&T, HUL, Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel cushioned the fall to some extent. Mid-cap and small-cap companies also fell on late profit-booking by wary retail investors.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors sold shares worth net Rs 101.98 crore yesterday, according to provisional data.
Asian markets closed mixed with a downward bias despite overnight record US stocks and buzz of a snap poll in Japan. Indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea ended in negative zone while those from Singapore and Taiwan ended up.
European shares washed out initial losses and were trading better in their late morning deals. The CAC was up by 0.19 percent and the DAX by 0.36 percent while the FTSE was down by 0.20 percent.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Indian equities opened positively, but as the day progressed the indices lost their way. Indices are trading near all time highs so investors preferred to stay cautious at these levels."
Overall, 22 out of 30 Sensex-based scrips ended with losses while others settled with gains.
Major losers from the Sensex pack include Tata Steel (3.08 percent), Sesa Sterlite (2.75 percent), Gail India (2.30 percent), Tata Motors (2.29 percent), BHEL (1.99 percent), NTPC (1.94 percent) and Sun Pharma (1.77 percent).
ONGC (1.69 percent), Coal India (1.58 percent), Cipla (1.47 percent), M&M (1.43 percent) and Reliance Industries (1.01 percent) also were among laggards.
However, Dr Reddy's Lab rose by 2.45 percent, HUL 1.19 percent, HDFC 1.01 percent, Bajaj Auto 1.01 percent and Bharti Airtel 0.89 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Metal fell by 2.14 percent, followed by Power 1.80 percent, Oil&Gas 1.35 percent, Consumer Durables 1.22 percent, Realty 0.99 percent, Bankex 0.65 percent and Auto 0.64 percent.
Total market breadth turned negative as 1,840 stocks finished in red, 1,216 stocks closed in green while 95 ruled steady. Total turnover rose further to Rs 3,848.52 crore from Rs 3,657.51 crore yesterday.
