A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) closed Thursday's trade down 134 points or 0.46 percent, as capital goods, healthcare and information technology (IT) stocks fell.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended in the red. It was down 43.50 points or 0.50 percent at 8,706.70 points.
The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,876.23 points, closed the day's trade at 28,666.04 points, down 133.65 points or 0.46 percent from the previous day's close at 28,799.69 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 28,876.23 points and a low of 28,497.70 points in the intra-day trade.
The S&P BSE midcap closed 77.74 points down. The S&P BSE smallcap was lower by 108.65 points.
"Market's curiosity seen yesterday has brought a broader impact today. Profit booking continues," said Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
According to Nair, investors have considered taking profit bookings before the important fourth quarterly results.
"As per this performance and budget session which starts April 20, investors can consider volatility," Nair added.
Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak Securities said that although the global cues were not very weak, the Sensex continued to remain under selling pressure.
"Capital goods and technology stocks lost ground in today's session. The upstream oil and gas sector saw some buying activity in view of the bounceback in crude prices," Zarbade said.
Sectors like capital goods, healthcare, banks, information technology (IT), consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) came under heavy selling pressure.
However, oil and gas index made gains during the day's trade session.
The S&P BSE capital goods index plunged 277.05 points followed by healthcare index which declined by 269.49 points, bank index decreased by 110.43 points, IT index receded by 104.97 points, consumer durables index was lower by 101.86 points and FMCG index was down 63.54 points.
However, the S&P BSE oil and gas index closed higher by 90.78 points.
Major trigger for Friday will be Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) results which is expected to be announced Thursday evening. Its quarterly numbers are expected to impact markets tomorrow.
The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: ONGC, up 3.25 percent at Rs.327.50; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.31 percent at Rs.1,225.40; Hindalco Industries, up 1.25 percent at Rs.137.25; HDFC, up 0.97 percent at Rs.1,303.90; and NTPC, up 0.97 percent at Rs.156.20.
The losers were: Hero MotoCorp, down 3.76 percent at Rs.2,428.85; Sun Pharma, down 2.60 percent at Rs.1,089.55; Cipla, down 2.14 percent at Rs.678.75; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.00 percent at Rs.1,752.50; and DrReddy's Lab, down 1.92 percent at Rs.3,681.45.
