Indian stocks closed lower on Tuesday, weighed down by IT stocks as the sentiment turned cautious in a holiday-shortened week.
Local markets will be closed on Friday for Christmas.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 145.25 points or 0.56 per cent at 25,590.65 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 48.35 points or 0.62 per cent at 7,786.10.
Barring consumer durables and healthcare, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, IT index fell the most by 1.15 per cent, followed by metal 1.00 per cent, TECk 0.86 per cent and FMCG 0.81 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was up 0.82 per cent and healthcare 0.31 per cent.
Gains in financials and energy stocks edged out declines in IT and consumer shares.
Reliance Communications shares rose 2.4% per cent after the company said it held talks for a potential merger of its wireless business with smaller rival Aircel.
A small pull-back in global oil prices saw stocks such as Reliance Industries, ONGC and Cairn India gain between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent each.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries shares, which fell more than 7 per cent on Monday about a warning letter from the US drug regulator, recovered slightly to gain 1.3 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Sun Pharma (+1.29%), Axis Bank (+1.18%), Bharti Airtel (+0.75%), Asian Paints (+0.61%) and GAIL (+0.55%), while the major losers were Infosys (-1.67%), ITC (-1.63%), M&M (-1.46%), TCS (-1.43%) and Adani Ports (-1.17%).
A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks were little changed in thin trading as investors weighed the prospect of more stimulus from Chinese leaders. US stocks closed higher, recovering from last week's steep losses following the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision. US government bonds were little changed to start a holiday-shortened week.Greece's current account showed a surplus for October versus a deficit a year ago, data from the Bank of Greece revealed on Monday. The current account logged a surplus of EUR 314 million for October, while there was a EUR 456 million deficit in the same month last year. This improvement is mainly attributable to a decline in the deficit of the balance of goods, which offset the narrowing observed in the surplus of the services balance, resulting in an improved balance of goods and services, the bank said. Further, improvements in the primary and secondary income accounts also contributed to the surplus.''
European shares rose on Tuesday to recover from a pullback in the previous session caused by worries over Spain, as firmer energy stocks and takeover activity lifted the region's equity markets.
Asian shares took solace from gains on Wall Street and edged higher on Tuesday, though gains were capped by caution over low share trade volume and plunging Brent crude oil prices ahead of this week's holidays.
US stocks ended stronger on Monday, helped by bounces in Apple and Microsoft as well as a rally in hospital stocks after more Americans signed up for subsidised health insurance.