Bourses took a breather today after a spectacular overnight rally on mild selling as the benchmark Nifty ended almost flat with marginal losses amid lacklustre overseas sentiment.
The 50-share Nifty moved between 7,888.75 and 7,835.50 before ending at 7,861.05, a modest loss of 4.90 points, or 0.06 per cent.
Despite a firm start, key indices succumbed to selling pressure as domestic investors preferred booking profits and stayed on sidelines ahead of the long weekend. It mostly traded on a listless note throughout the session before ending marginally lower.
The benchmark had rallied 79.85 points on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, barring Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which gained over 1 per cent, most Asian markets ended lower after a strong start in light trading volume head of the Christmas holiday, while a sustained rally on Wall Street stocks and recovery in crude oil helped limit losses.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net buyers and bought shares worth a net Rs 385.82 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Financials, particularly banking stocks, witnessed heavy falls on lingering concerns over bad loans.
Realty, energy, technology and pharma were the other sectors which saw good amount of unwinding from market participants.
However, metal remained a hot bet for investors following a rebound in global prices. Auto and FMCG too attracted some buying activity, while mid-cap and small-cap segments outperformed benchmark indices.
Key losers were ICICI Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Reliance, Zee, Maruti, SBI, ONGC, Axis Bank, Dr Reddys, Grasim and Tata Steel.
Notable gaiers included ITC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Idea, TCS, Vedanata, L&T, Hindalco, IndusInd Bank, M&M, Cairn and Hero MotoCorp.
Turnover in cash segment dropped to Rs 13,390.56 crore from Rs 15,595.19 crore yesterday. A total of 8,256.08 lakh shares changed hands in 58,72,838 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 97,32,964 crore.
