Benchmark indices witnessed profit booking at higher levels on Wednesday with the Nifty ending 122 points lower while the Sensex down by 398 points.
Both the indices snapped their two-session winning run on profit booking in select heavyweights.
Nifty 50 index fell by 0.50%, slipping below the 25,000 mark to close at 24,915 points while the Sensex declined by 0.53%, settling at 81.485 points.
On BSE, over 300 stocks hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade. These included ITC, HUL, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, Britannia Industries, Dabur, Divi’s Labs, DMart, Godrej Consumer Products, Persistent Systems, Naukri, PI Industries, United Spirits and Zomato.
Further, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 0.52% and 0.57%, respectively.
The overall market capitalisation of the BSE-listed firms dropped to nearly Rs 461 lakh crore from Rs 463.5 lakh crore in the previous session.
Some notable gainers on Nifty included Bajaj Auto, LTI Mindtree, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, and Britannia Industries, which saw rises between 1% and 4%.
Shares of Tata Motors tanked nearly 5% in opening trade, emerging as one of the top losers on the Nifty 50.
Further, the shares of Bajaj Auto extended gains to the third straight session, rising 4% to touch an all-time high of Rs 11,498 per share.
Shares of Varun Beverages jumped 4% to Rs 1,588 per share ahead of its record date for 2:5 stock split.
Shoppers Stop shares scaled over ten percent in trade to record a fresh lifetime high. So far in trade, over 14 lakh shares exchanged hands in trade on the bourses, multiple times higher than the one-month daily traded average of 76,000 shares.
Shares of Infibeam Avenues Ltd fell as much as 8% as the stock traded ex-date for spin off of its digital marketing arm Odigma Consultancy Solutions.
Among Sectors, Oil Gas and PSU Bank indices lost the most shed over 1.5% whereas selective Pharma and FMCG stocks registered buying interest at lower levels.
Indian rupee ended at 83.98 a dollar, unchanged from its previous close of 83.98.
Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell by 0.8% to 19,163 points. Major losers included HFCL, IRB Infrastructure, Welspun Living, Swan Energy, and Aarti Industries, which experienced declines ranging from 4.2% to 5%.
All eyes will be on key US inflation data on Friday that will give some hint about the Federal Reserve’s likely move on interest rates in its policy meeting later this month.