Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty on Wednesday slipped from record highs and logged their first drop in five days on profit-taking ahead of industrial output and inflation data releases.
The country's trade deficit in May rising to 10-month highs and a weak opening in European stock barometers also affected domestic sentiment, said dealers.
The BSE 30-share barometer resumed better and improved further to a fresh historic intra-day high of 25,735.87. However, it fell back sharply to a low of 25,365.65 before concluding at 25,473.89, a net fall of 109.80 points or 0.43 percent. In previous four sessions, it had zoomed by 777.86 points or 3.14 percent.
Business was also marked by a technical glitch in the BSE's index calculation system for about 20 minutes earlier.
The 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE declined by 29.55 points, or 0.39 percent, to 7,626.85. Intra-day it crossed 7,700-mark for the first time to log a new high of 7,700.05.
Nifty rose by 254 points in the previous four sessions.
"Benchmark indices fell strongly in today's session after rallying in first 90 minutes. Realty sector was the worst hit due to profit booking. Metals, Energy, Media and Infra also declined," said Kiran Kumar Kavikondala, Director & CEO, WealthRays Securities.
Scrips from IT, teck and pharma, however, registered gains as investors searched for defensive picks, traders say.
Weakness in heavyweights like RIL, ONGC, ITC, ICICI Bank, L&T and Tata Motors mainly weighed on the Sensex. Sesa Sterlite, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, HUL, Tata Power and Coal India also suffered losses and aided the Sensex drop today.
"The last three days of move in index show early sign of exhaustion at higher level, which ultimately triggers profit taking," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
Offloading of positions occurred ahead of the release of Consumer Price Index inflation data for May and Index of Industrial Production data for April due Thursday. Wholesale Price Index inflation data for May is due on June 16.
Country's trade deficit jumped to 10 month high of USD 11.23 billion in May even though exports witnessed strongest growth of 12.4 percent in six months.
Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 682.26 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Globally today, Asian stocks ended mixed in a choppy trade as key indices in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan moved up by 0.08 percent to 0.50 percent. Indices in Singapore and Hong Kong, on the other hand, declined by 0.11 percent to 0.25 percent.
European stocks fell from multi-year highs in their early trade after the World Bank cut its global growth forecast for 2014. Key indices in France, Germany and UK moved down by 0.62 percent to 0.81 percent.
Commenting on Indian markets, Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "In last four sessions we saw tussle between FIIs and Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs). DIIs are into the profit-booking as markets are trading at all time high levels... (this) has dented the market movement".
Seventeen scrips of the 30 constituents, which comprise the Sensex, ended lower while others finished higher. Major losers were Tata Power (4.98 percent), Hindalco (4.18 percent), Coal India (3.84 percent), BHEL (3.33 percent), NTPC (3.18 percent), ONGC (3.14 percent), HUL (2.09 percent), Sesa Sterlite (2 percent), Bharti Airtel (1.92 percent), Tata Steel (1.72 percent), Tata Motors (1.48 percent), RIL (1.46 percent), ITC (1.22 percent) and L&T (1.21 percent).
However, Infosys firmed up by 3.64 percent, followed by TCS 2.23 percent, Dr Reddy's 1.67 percent, Hero Moto 1.61 percent, Bajaj Auto 1.14 percent and Cipla 1.03 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Realty 4.21 percent, Consumer Durables 2.99 percent, Metal 2.82 percent, Power 2.75 percent, Oil&Gas 1.84 percent, Capital Goods 1.18 percent and FMCG 1.11 percent.
Gainers were led by IT index that rose by 2.23 percent and Teck by 1.25 percent, among others.
Total market breadth remained positive as 1,647 stocks closed with gains while 1,487 ended with losses.
