The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower for second straight session dragged down by weakness in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Titan and IndusInd Bank. However, the losses were capped owing to buying interest in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC. The Sensex fell as much as 310 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,824.
The Sensex ended 10 points lower at 60,105 and Nifty 50 index slipped 18 points to settle at 17,895.
"Participants are having a tough time dealing with prevailing volatility amid the corrective phase and we do not expect any relief soon, citing the upcoming events and ongoing earnings season. We thus reiterate our view to limit positions and prefer hedged trades. Investors, on the other hand, should see this decline as a buying opportunity and gradually accumulate quality stocks on dips," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking.
Bharti Airtel was top Nifty loser, the stock fell as much as 5.15 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 752 after international brokerage house J P Morgan downgraded the stock to 'underweight' from 'overweight' and cut its target price to Rs 710 from Rs 860 citing concerns about muted returns on invested capital.
Cipla, Divi's Labs, Apollo Hospitals, Hindustan Unilever, ONGC, Coal India, Titan, Tata Communications, Reliance Industries, Nestle India and SBI Life also fell between 1-2.8 per cent.
On the other hand, Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.77 per cent to Rs 491 as copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged to highest level in over three months.
Bharat Petroleum, Sun Pharma, Ultratech Cement, HDFC Bank, TCS, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, HDFC and ICICI Bank were among the gainers.
Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Metal index's 0.75 per cent gain. Nifty PSU Bank, Private Bank, Media and Bank indices also rose between 0.5-0.7 per cent.
On the flipside, auto, IT, pharma and select realty shares faced selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares faced selling pressure was Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.32 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.05 per cent.
The overall market breadth was marginally positive as 1,866 shares ended higher while 1,627 closed lower on the BSE.
