A benchmark index of Indian stock markets closed 80 points or 0.38 percent lower on profit booking on banks, consumer durables and meta stocks.
The benchmark crossed its highest ever closing mark in the special Diwali trading held Sunday at 21,239.36 points. The previous record high of 21,196.81 points was hit Friday. The index Tuesday closed 1.25 percent down, the first day of the new trading year.
On Wednesday, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,004.54 points, closed at 20,894.94 points, down 79.85 points or 0.38 percent from the previous day's close at 20,974.79 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 21,045.38 points and a low of 20,861.42 intra-day.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also declined. It ended at 6,215.15 points, down 38 points or 0.61 percent.
Heavy selling pressure was observed in bank, consumer durables and metals. However, buying support was observed in information technology (IT), healthcare and technology, entertainment and media (TECk) sectors.
The S&P BSE bank index was down 246.07 points, followed by consumer durables index which was lower by 136.44 points and metal index, which lost 122.27 points.
However, IT index was 116.30 points up, healthcare index was higher by by 82.27 points and TECk index was down 47.38 points.
Prominent Sensex gainers were: NTPC, up 3.50 percent at Rs.152.45; Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), up 2.43 percent at Rs.2,091.75; Sun Pharma, 1.74 percent at Rs.603.05; Infosys, up 1.25 percent at Rs.3,305.90; and Cipla, up 0.94 percent at Rs.424.55.
Prominent Sensex scrips which closed in the red included State Bank of India (SBI), down 3.40 percent at Rs.1,809.60; Sesa Sterlite, down 2.50 percent at Rs.197.10; Jindal Steel, down 2.01 percent at Rs.243.20; Hindalco Inds, down 1.87 percent at Rs.115.50; and HDFC, down 1.54 percent at Rs.845.75.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.79 percent up, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was lower by 0.01 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite index lost 0.82 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.12 percent higher, and Germany's DAX Index was up 0.40 percent. The French CAC 40 Index closed the day's trade 0.89 percent up.
