Mumbai, April 15 (IANS): After remaining range-bound for the bulk of Wednesday's trading session, the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended with a loss of 244.75 points, with the mood unaffected by official data showing further deceleration in inflation.
Analysts attributed the fall to profit-booking after a bull run over the past week. They said the markets also turned cautious, ahead of the corporates announcing their fourth quater results for the financial year 2014-15.
The Sensex was trading within a range of around 120 points throughout the day. But the final 45 minutes of the session saw a drop from the day's high of 29,094.61 points to a low of 28,721.63 points, before making a marginal recovery.
At the closing bell, the index was down 0.84 percent at 28,799.69 points.
The story was similar at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where the broader, 50-share Nifty was down 83.80 points or 0.95 percent and ended the day's trade at 8,750.20.
On the BSE, only seven out of the 30 shares that constitute the Sensex managed to remain in the green, led by Sesa Sterlite, up 3.32 percent at Rs.207.20. The worst loser of the day was Bharat Heavy Electricals, down 3.43 percent at Rs.1,209.50.
Heavy selling pressure was seen in auto, healthcare, capital goods and information technology (IT) sectors, while marginal good buying was observed in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.
Among the sector-specific indices that ended in the red were healthcare index (1.55 percent), auto (1.49 percent), tech (1.47 percent), IT (1.46 percent) and realty (1.37 percent). The gainers were led by FMCG (16.06 percent), followed by oil and gas (0.17 percent).
The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: IDBI, up 3.62 percent at Rs.78.65; SSLT, up 3.32 percent at Rs.207.20, Bank of India, up 2.53 percent at Rs.226.65; and Federal Bank, up 2.40 percent at Rs.132.35.
The major losers were: Shriram Transport Finance Co.Ltd, down 4.21 percent at Rs.1098.25; GM Infra, down 3.49 percent at Rs.17.95; BHEL, down 3.43 percent at Rs.233.55; and Mahindra & Mahindra, down 3.26 percent at Rs.1209.50.