Indian equities, the Sensex and the Nifty, shed about 0.4 per cent at the end of the session on Wednesday amid firm global cues.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 75.93 points (0.38 per cent) at 19,666.59 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 29.6 points (0.49 per cent) at 5,972.10.
Volume toppers during the session were ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, L&T and Tata Steel. Top five Sensex gainers were Tata Motors, GAIL, Coal India, SBI and ONGC while the top five laggards were BHEL, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, ITC and Jindal Steel.
On the BSE, buying was seen in the stocks of auto, oil & gas, PSU and healthcare stocks. Among them, auto index was up 0.74 per cent, oil & gas 0.5 per cent, PSU 0.17 per cent and healthcare 0.04 per cent.
On the other hand, metal, FMCG, consumer durables and capital goods stocks lost investors' support. Among them, FMCG index was down 1.26 per cent, consumer durables 1.21 per cent, metal 1.18 per cent and capital goods 1.01 per cent.
Analysts said the domestic equity markets will watch for third quarter corporate results, which will start coming in from the second week of January.
Industrial production numbers may also have some impact on the trading sentiment this week. Industrial output and inflation data are due on Friday, a key indicator ahead of the RBI's policy review on January 29.
European stocks were up as Alcoa Inc. began the US earnings season by posting sales that beat estimates and investors awaited German industrial output data. Asian shares were also up.