In lacklustre trade today, the BSE benchmark Sensex today closed 62 points lower as investors booked profit ahead of long week-end amid reports that India's manufacturing sector in September expanded at the slowest pace in nine months.
The 30-share barometer resumed better and immediately touched a high of 26,683.70 before falling back to settle 26,567.99, exhibiting a fall of 62.52 points or 0.23 per cent.
The broader 50-issue Nifty of the NSE also declined by 19.25 points or 0.24 per cent to 7,945.55.
Brokers said sentiment was hit by reports of slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
According to an HSBC survey, the headline HSBC India Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) -- a composite gauge designed to give a single-figure snapshot of manufacturing business conditions -- dropped from 52.4 in August to 51.0 in September, the slowest pace of growth since December, 2013.
Selling was seen across-the-board as 10 out of 12 sectoral indices closed in the red and only IT and teck indices finished in the green.
Shares of IT companies firmed up after Infosys announced that it is extending its relationship with Oracle to enhance support for a range of innovative solutions and services on new technology platforms.
IT stocks also got a boost from rupee falling to almost seven-month low of 61.94 against the dollar.
Infosys was the second top gainer in the Sensex pack with a gain of 2.66 per cent. Wipro was biggest gainer 3.22 per cent. TCS rose by 1.37 per cent. The BSE-IT index was the top gainer among sectoral indices with a rise of 1.94 per cent, followed by BSE-Teck 1.36 per cent.
Major losers were Maruti 3.11 per cent, Tata Power 2.47 per cent, Tata Steel 2.31 per cent, Gail India 2.27 per cent, Reliance Ind 1.96 per cent, ITC 1.81 per cent, ONGC 1.58 per cent, HUL 1.44 per cent and Hindalco 1.05 per cent.
Gainers included Hero MotoCorp 1.24 per cent, Axis bank 0.81 per cent and Coal India 0.79 per cent.
THe BSE and NSE will now open for trading on Tuesday as a series of holiday fall on October 2, 3 and 6 on account of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi, Dussehra and Bakri Id.
