The Sensex fell over 195 points to 27,506.46 and Nifty dipped below 8,300-level as participants indulged in profit-booking amidst poll trends suggesting a hung assembly in J&K and the BJP inching towards forming government in Jharkhand.
Besides, a cautious stance adopted by participants ahead of the monthly expiry in the derivatives segment tomorrow following closure of markets on Thursday for “Christmas”, cast its shadow on sentiments.
After rising over 150 points in early trade on the back of a firming trend in global markets coupled with covering-up of short positions by speculators, the Sensex fell back to close at 27,506.46, down 195.33 points, or 0.71 per cent.
It shuttled between 27,851.10 and 27,475.13.
The 30-share index had rallied by 991.66 points in the past three sessions on the back of positive domestic and global cues.
Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty, after rising to 8,364.75 at the outset, succumbed to selling pressure and dipped below the 8,300-mark to end at 8,267.00, down 57 points, or 0.68 per cent after moving between 8,364.75 and 8,252.85.
Major losers that pulled down the Sensex and Nifty were metals, realty, consumer durables, oil & gas, IT, PSU, power, healthcare, banking and auto sector stocks.
Out of 30-Sensex constituents, 20 ended lower and 10 finished in positive zone.
Equity brokers said emergence of profit-booking by funds in stocks that had recently logged gains amidst absence of any fresh trigger and a weak trend at other Asian markets led to the fall in markets.
Further, poll trends in Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir also influenced sentiments, they said.
Bucking the trend, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, GAIL, ITC Ltd. and TCS ended between 0.08 and 3.03 per cent higher and limited the fall in the benchmark.
Sectorwise, the BSE metal index suffered the most by falling 1.89 per cent, followed by Capital Goods (1.46 pc), Consumer Durables (1.39 pc), Oil & Gas (0.96 pc), IT index (0.90 pc), Realty index (0.77 pc), Banking index (0.69 pc), Auto index (0.18 pc) and Healthcare index (0.06 pc), all in the negative territory.
Smallcap index fell 0.64 per cent and Mid-cap index ended 0.33 per cent lower.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs. 335.24 crore on Monday, as per provisional data from stock exchanges.
