Hectic profit-booking reflecting a lower monsoon forecast and dismal corporate earning results ensured selling in key FMCG, energy, banking and auto counters, leading the benchmark Nifty to end below the crucial 6,800-mark.
Earlier, indices touched fresh an all-time high of 6,869.85 sentiment supported by good foreign institutional investors (FII) inflows, before succumbing to hectic profit-booking amid volatility, as key FMCG shares dropped by 2.08 per cent on macro concerns, after the country's weather bureau forecast a below normal rainfall due to the El-Nino effect.
Disappointment in corporate results of energy major Cairn India and prime lenders ICICI Bank, despite the rise in its Q4 profits resulted a fall in their shares by 4.94 per cent and 2.24 per cent.
Key cement shares like Ambuja Cem dropped by 4.43 per cent and Ultracem co 4.15 per cent.
Meanwhile, FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 767.61 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data from stock exchanges.
The National Stock Exchange's Nifty hovered between a high of 6,869.85 and a low of 6,772.85 points, before closing at 6,782.75 points, down by 58.05 points, or 0.85 per cent, over its last close.
Other losers were BPCL, Grasim, ITC, ACC, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever, while M&M, Dr Reddy's, TechM, HDFC and NMDC managed gains.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 15,877.71 crore from Rs 18,017.33 crore on Wednesday. A total of 8,713.81 lakh shares changed hands in 70,57,034 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 74,48,309 crore.
