A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Wednesday's trade flat -- down 48 points, as capital goods, consumer durables and metal stocks dipped.
This was the fourth straight session of fall in markets which retreated after touching record highs last week.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 22,517.63 points, closed trading at 22,417.80 points, down 48.39 points or 0.22 percent from the previous day's close at 22,466.19 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 22,680.46 points and a low of 22,284.96 points in trade.
Heavy selling pressure was seen in capital goods, consumer durables, metal, realty and bank scrips. However, automobile, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and oil and gas stocks rose.
The capital goods index of the BSE fell 250.63 points, followed by consumer durables index which edged lower by 133.01 points, metal index was lower by 116.39 points, while the realty index was down 78.23 points and bank index slipped 67.10 points.
However, the automobile index was up 49.32 points, followed by FMCG index which rose 11.04 points and oil and gas index was higher by 3.11 points.
The wider 50-scrip S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too ended in the red. It closed 18.85 points or 0.28 percent down at 6,696.40 points.
The major Sensex gainers were: Hero MotoCorp, up 2.27 percent at Rs.2,193.85; ONGC, up 1.81 percent at Rs.325.80; Dr Reddy's Lab, up 1.45 percent at Rs.2,705.30; Tata Motors, up 1.30 percent at Rs.414.45; and HDFC, up 1.15 percent at Rs.897.55.
Major Sensex losers included: Tata Power, down 3.52 percent at Rs.78.05; BHEL, down 3.19 percent at Rs.180.75; Sesa Sterlite, down 2.78 percent at Rs.185.10; Bharti Airtel, down 2.24 percent at Rs.327.65; and Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 1.96 percent at Rs.1,295.55.
Among Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed higher at 0.11 percent but China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.30 percent. However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 1.42 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.23 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.12 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index had lost 0.27 percent when markets closed here.
