Indian markets succumbed to fresh bout of selling after a brief overnight Santa rally with the benchmark Nifty falling over 48 points to close below the key 7,800 barrier on the National Stock Exchange(NSE) here.
Financials including PSU banking heavyweights, FMCG, technology, metal and auto counters suffered the most as investors lightened their buy positions in a holiday-shortened week, underperforming Asian peers largely.
After a cautious start, key indices mostly traded in tight range with market looking indecisive due to lack of direction and conviction to move ahead.
However, key indices made a smart rebound in mid afternoon trade before falling back sharply on late profit-taking.
Elsewhere in the region, barring Japan, most Asian markets ended firmly higher on expectations of fresh stimulus measures from the world's second largest economy to halt the worsening economic slowdown.
European markets are trading firmly higher.
The 50-share Nifty opened weak at 7,829.40 and swung between a high of 7,846.30 and a low of 7,776.85 before ending at 7,786.10, showing a fall of 48.35 points, or 0.62 per cent.
On the sectoral front, PSU Bank slipped (1.16 per cent), FMCG (1.15 per cent), IT (1.15 per cent), Metal (1.04 per cent), Auto (0.68 per cent), Nifty Bank (0.45 per cent), Infra (0.25 per cent) and Energy (0.22 per cent.)
However, pharma counters saw renewed buying interest with the key indices gaining by 0.34 per cent.
Major laggards were Infosys, ITC, TCS, HDFC Bank, M&M, Reliance, L&T, Indusind Bank, Bosch, SBI, Kotak Bank, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Lupin, Heromotoco and Maruti.
On the gainers side, Sun Pharma topped the list after overnight steep fall followed by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Idea, Asian Paint and Bharti Airtel.
Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 13,624.37 crore from Rs 13,295.10 crore yesterday. A total of 9,081.36 lakh shares changed hands in 64,94,270 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 96,14,428 crore.
