Sensex closed with a loss of 63 points with investors preferring to stay on the sidelines with the markets remaining close for the next five days.
The benchmark index opened on the positive side at 26,681 against the previous close of 26,631. It made a high of 26,684 and low of 26,548 before closing at 26,568. Turnover on BSE was down Rs 2,680 crore against Rs 3,821 crore recorded on Tuesday.
In NSE, Nifty was down 19 points at 7,946.
Foreign portfolio investors’ investment in shares was down six per cent at Rs 5,103 crore in September against Rs 5,430 crore in August. In last nine months, FPIs have bought shares worth Rs 83,438 crore.
Shares of Tata Group companies were under heavy selling pressure. While Tata Steel and Tata Power were down five pre cent at four per cent, Tata Motors fell two per cent.
Bank stocks dipped for the second in a row after Reserve Bank of India retained key bank rates in its credit policy announced on Tuesday. Some of the bank stocks that were down in a volatile trade include ICICI Bank (-0.47%), Axis Bank (-0.81%), State Bank of India (-0.79%) and HDFC Bank (-0.38%).
Shares of Maruti Suzuki dipped three per cent to Rs 2,969. The company on Tuesday said it will proactively inspect and repair the wiring harness fitment of 69,555 diesel vehicles (55,938 units of old Dzire, 12,486 units of old Swift and 1,131 units of Ritz) manufactured between March, 2010 and August, 2013.
Rupee depreciation against dollar helped IT stocks to gain. As many as five top IT companies including Wipro, Infosys, HCL Tech, Tata Consultancy and Tech Mahindra hit their 52-week high.
Some of the major gainers include Berger Paints (5%), Bata India (5%), Suzlon (5%), Jubilant Foods (4%), Bharat Electronics (3%) and Wipro (3%).
Major losers were Infratel (-4%), Sobha (-3%), Maruti (-3%), MRF (-3%), Apollo Tyres (-3%) and IndusInd Bank (-3%).