Disappointing results, May futures expiry and anxiety over policy rates cut, led a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), to close 58 points or 0.21 percent down during the trade session on Thursday.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also slipped in the negative zone. It closed the day's trade down 15.60 points or 0.19 percent at 8,319 points.
The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,619.31 points, closed the day's trade at 27,506.71 points, down 57.95 points or 0.21 percent from the previous day's close at 27,564.66 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 27,666.37 points and a low of 27,354.35 points in the intra-day trade on Thursday.
Analysts covering the day's trade said that markets were volatile during the expiry session and that Friday on they will trend in anticipation of the Reserve Bank of India's policy rate cut decision scheduled for June 2, 2015.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to conduct its bi-monthly monetary policy review on June 2, 2015.
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"The cautionary note is understandable as several major event risks are lined up for next month, like interest rate announcements by the RBI and US Fed FOMC slated on June 2 and June 17 respectively, as well as the progress of southwest monsoon in India," said Anand James, co-head for technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas.
"However, these events do not carry as much surprise potential as the Greece debt payment, whose deadlines also fall in June. Rupee, euro as well as dollar index have been quite volatile in the last week, hinting at big moves in currencies, as well as equities in the week ahead," James added.
Gaurav Jain, director with Hem Securities, said: "The markets have been reeling under the pressure of Greece woes, derivative contracts expiry, less FIIs (foreign institutional investors) investments and weak corporate earnings."
"Sharp fall in Chinese market added fuel to the negative sentiment. Indian markets continued to remain volatile and directionless under such circumstances," Jain said.
Sector-wise, healthcare, banking and metal stocks came under heavy selling pressure. However, healthy buying was observed in consumer durables, information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) sectors.
The S&P BSE healthcare index dived by 221.58 points, banking index receded by 107.73 points and metal index declined by 36.81 points.
However, S&P BSE consumer durables index augmented by 136.88 points, IT index rose by 71.92 points and TECK index increased by 24.34 points.
The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: Vedanta, up 2.53 percent at Rs.196.90; Tata Motors, up 2.52 percent at Rs.483.55; Infosys, up 2.30 percent at Rs.2,014.30; Hero MotoCorp, up 1.42 percent at Rs.2,641.95; and BHEL, up 1.16 percent at Rs.251.95.
The losers were: Cipla, down 2.58 percent at Rs.643.40; Tata Power down 2.18 percent at Rs.74.05; Sun Pharma, down 1.94 percent at Rs.955.75; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.93 percent at Rs.1,201.45; and Bharti Airtel, down 1.76 percent at Rs.401.30.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed higher by 0.39 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index was down by 6.50 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined by 2.23 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 edged up by 0.16 percent. France's CAC 40 was lower by 0.50 percent, and Germany's DAX Index lost 0.36 percent at the closing bell here.