The BSE benchmark Sensex slipped into the red in late afternoon trade on Tuesday as investors turned cautious ahead of fourth quarter results.
The Sensex ended down 211 points or 1.15 per cent at 18,226 while the Nifty lost 48 points or 0.86 per cent to 5,495.
Only the Auto index finished in the green.
IT (-2.10%), TECk (-1.88%), Oil & Gas (-1.65%) and PSU (-1.57%) led the losers list.
Today's market fall in the afternoon session by over 200 points in the Sensex and about 48 points in the Nifty marked the fifth consecutive session of falls.
Scrip of IT major Wipro slipped by over 12 per cent per cent in the afternoon session on day one of trading after the company demerged and split its non-IT business into a separate unit. Shares in Hindustan Unilever Ltd fell 1.41 per cent after parent company Unilever Plc cited the risk of a slowdown in key emerging markets in an annual report.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd shares fell 2.03 per cent a day after the company reported an 8 per cent fall in provisional net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Infosys, SBI and ONGC were down over 2 per cent while RIL and ITC were down by over 1.5 per cent.
Tata Motors (+2.26%) and TCS (+1.10%) were the top gainers.
The most active stocks on the Sensex were SBI, Wipro, RIL, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank.
The 30-share barometer had opened with a gap up of over 70 points in opening trade. The index had lost 603.17 points in the previous four sessions.
Meanwhile in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose by 0.70 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei was unchanged at close. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.33 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.