Equities failed to maintain the firm trend witnessed earlier in the day amid profit taking by operators with the benchmark CNX Nifty slipped by 20 points, extending the slide for the third day on the National Stock Exchange.
After a quiet opening, the key index firmed up in the wake of good buying in the beaten down sectors following short-covering, positive European opening and the recovery seen in the rupee, which helped the index hitting 5981 levels, the day's highest, in the mid-afternoon session.
The market saw considerable volatility towards the tail-end and gave back the gains following profit taking in bluechip counters from financials, technology, auto and metal sectors. However, buying support for healthcare, FMCG and infra related stocks helped the market to pull off from its lowest level of the day.
The Nifty touched a high of 5,981.60 and low of 5,910.25 before ending at 5,919.45, posting a loss of 19.85 points, or 0.33 per cent, over its last close.
Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Sesa Goa, SBIN, Ambuja Cement, Jindal Steel, HDFC, DLF, Maruti and HCL-Tech were among the top losers from the index pack.
The smart movers included Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy, Cipla, Lupin, L&T, Tata Power, Ultracemco, NTPC, Power Grid and Cairn.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 9,469.36 crore from Rs 9,669.81 crore yesterday. A total of 4,891.47 lakh shares changed hands in 52,73,405 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 64,79,585 crore.
