Sensex slipped 167 points on profit booking after the sustained rally in last weeks. The benchmark index opened marginally higher at 24,748 against the previous close of 24,717. It made a high of 24,777 and low of 24,422 before closing at 24,549.
Turnover on the exchange was lower at Rs 4,136 crore against the previous close of Rs 6,121 crore.
Nifty was down 41 points at 7,318.
In BSE, GAIL dipped eight per cent at Rs 379 after its net profit fell short of market expectation. The company’s net profit was up 57 per cent at Rs 972 crore as its sales rose 18 per cent to Rs 14,978 crore in the March quarter.
The company has made a provision of Rs 500 crore (Rs 587 crore) in March quarter as per the Government directive to share under recoveries on LPG. The provision for the financial year 2013-14 was at Rs 1,900 crore (Rs 2,687 crore), GAIL said in a statement.
Most metal and mining stocks declined. Sesa Sterlite and JSW Steel were down one per cent, while SAIL dipped 1.21 per cent. Tata Steel was up two per cent and Hindustan Zinc rose one per cent.
The major gainers were Jindal Steel (6%), Bharat Forge (6%), Pipavav Defence (5%), TV18 Broadcast (5%), Aurobindo Pharma (5%) and Motherson Sumi (4%).
Prominent losers include JP Infratec (-11%), Suzlon Energy (-9%), Gail India (8%), IFCI (-7%), Unitech (-6%), Gitanjali Gems (-6%) and Bajaj Holdings (-5%).