Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty hit new life-time highs on Friday but retreated on profit-booking in blue chips, including ICICI Bank, Wipro and Tata Motors, to log their first drop in nine sessions.
The BSE Sensex ended down 145.10 points to end at 26,126.75 after surging to 26,300.17 intra-day.
The NSE Nifty in early trade hit record 7,840.9 but ended below the key 7,800 mark to close at 7,790.45, down 40.15 points.
Marked losses in counters like RIL, SBI, HDFC Bank and Infosys also weighed on the market sentiment.
Both the indices had gained about 5 per cent in the previous eight sessions, their longest in recent times.
The Sensex had gained 1,264.87 points while Nifty 376.45 points in this period, as overseas money chased encouraging corporate earnings. Receding fears about monsoon, uptick in macroeconomic data and the government’s reform push also contributed to the stupendous rally, said market analysts.