Mumbai: Late selling led the market into negative zone as the benchmark CNX Nifty extended its fall for second straight day to end below the crucial 8,800-level.
The market momentum were mostly in tight-range, though volatility ruled the roost in final one-and-half hour trading session as investors caution gained upper-hand in the days ahead of Union-budget as well as February month-end derivative expiry on coming Thursday.
Earlier the Budget session got under-way in Parliament today with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeked from opposition a constructive-debate and cooperation on all issues in coming days.
The broader 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,856.85 and hovered between a high of 8,869.00 and lower 8,736.10 before concluding at 8,754.95, showing a drop of 78.65 points, or 0.89 percent over its previous close.
Across the counter selling pressure was witnessed with the main laggards were led by realty 1.66 percent, PSU banks 1.78 percent, energy 1.37 percent and FMCG by 1.12 percent followed by shares of MidCap companies by 1.45 percent.
Major lossers were Zeel 3.96 percent, NMDC 3.44 percent, DLF 3.17 percent, Lupin 2.51 percent, Reliance 2.48 percent, Axis Bank 2.22 percent, SBIN 1.90 percent, Jindal Steel 1.75 percent and HDFC 1.64 percent.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 89.41 crore last Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.
Elsewhere, Asian markets mostly ended mixed, while markets of China and Taiwan remained closed today for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 17,307.94 crore against Rs 18,301.86 crore last Friday. A total of 9,340.90 lakh shares changed hands in 73,45,029 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 101,14,881 crore.
