The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session down by nearly 100 points due to heavy selling in realty, metal, banking and healthcare stocks despite positive global cues.
Investors turned wary ahead of release of IIP data for August and inflation data for September tomorrow and corporate earnings season that will kick off with TCS results tomorrow.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 90.42 points or 0.28 per cent at 31,833.99 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed down 32.15 points or 0.32 per cent at 9,984.80.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index fell the most by 2.01 per cent, followed by metal 1.43 per cent, banking 0.97 per cent and healthcare 0.86 per cent. On the other hand, oil & gas index was up 1.11 per cent, followed by TECk 0.65 per cent and IT 0.3 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel (+5.04%), TCS (+1.66%), Wipro (+1.43%), M&M (+1.3%) and HUL (+0.32%), while the major losers were Tata Motors (-2.02%), State Bank of India (-1.97%), Dr Reddy's (1.47%), Lupin (-1.42%) and Tata Steel (-1.4%).
Market heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services and Reliance Industries Ltd are slated to post results later this week. Shares of both companies were up over 1 per cent each.
On a broader front, the September-quarter earnings season is expected to be subdued due to the impact of the goods and services tax, Siddharth Sedani, Vice-President and head-equity advisory, Anand Rathi, said.
He said that he expects a turnaround only in the December-quarter.
Asian shares rose on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s rally to all-time highs, while the euro hovered near a 10-day peak after Catalonia’s leader talked down immediate plans to secede from Spain, easing near-term concerns about euro zone instability.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan nudged 0.24 per cent higher to test a recent decade peak of 545.56.