The benchmark Sensex today retreated from a record and fell for the first time in four days weighed down by selling in power and oil shares as Prime Minister Narendra Modi allotted portfolios to his council of ministers.
Mixed global cues with downward bias amid offloading of positions by foreign funds in view of monthly equity derivatives expiry also impacted the market, a broker said.
The BSE 30-share barometer resumed slightly better, but fell back immediately and remained in negative for rest of the day to end at 24,549.51, a fall of 167.37 points or 0.68 per cent. In previous three days, it had gained 418.86 points, or 1.72 per cent, to end at record closing high of 24,716.88.
"Possibly, profit booking coupled with disappointment over the appointment of key ministries could have led to market decline. All indices were in red except IT, Metals and Healthcare," said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
The broad-based NSE 50-issue CNX Nifty also dropped 41.05 points, or 0.56 per cent, to end at 7,318.00.
A narrowing current account deficit at 1.7 per cent of GDP in FY'14 from 4.7 per cent in FY'13 was apparently ignored by market participants, said equity dealers.
Selling activity was seen picking up in mid and small-cap stocks largely in line with overall trends, they added.
Renewed capital outflows too affected the market sentiment. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 84.13 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Gail India was the top loser from the Sensex pack with a fall of 7.56 per cent even as net profit rose year-on-year.
Besides Gail India, HDFC, RIL, SBI, ONGC, M&M, Tata Motors, TCS and BHEL also suffered losses while Infosys, L&T, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Hindalco attracted buying.
"With the derivatives expiry on Thursday markets are likely to be volatile. Even for initiating fresh shorts traders should wait for some pullback or consolidation to take place at higher levels," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
