Stock markets Tuesday snapped its four-day upward move with the benchmark Sensex losing 121 points on selling pressure in blue-chips like Infosys and Reliance Industries.
The 30-share index closed at 17,590.17, a drop of 121.18 points or 0.68 per cent. Nineteen components of Sensex ended up as losers.
The 50-share Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange fell 0.76 per cent to 5,262.45 points.
In four days of sustained gains, the barometer index had gained 300 points or 1.72 per cent to touch its 25-month high of 17,793 points Monday.
Traders attributed Tuesday's fall to mostly
profit-booking after the market scaled its highest level.
IT stocks took a beating with the rupee strengthening against the US dollar. The counter declined for the third straight day on concerns of rising rupee, which is currently hovering around 45 a dollar mark, its 18-month high level.
Among the frontline IT stocks, TCS declined 1.32 per cent and Wipro 1.92 per cent.
HDFC Bank, however, was the biggest loser at three per cent, followed by Infosys at 2.64 per cent and Larsen & Toubro at 1.18 per cent.
Reliance Industries, which has the maximum weight in the index, slipped 0.55 per cent.
"Market went down on profit-booking. Tuesday's decline is a correction and profit taking may continue for some more time," Bonanza Portfolio Assistant Vice President Avinash
Gupta said.
Analysts said the fall was scripted by all-round selling by domestic institutions as well as FIIs, who have put in about USD 3.8 billion in the Indian stocks in March alone.
Other major loser among the Sensex companies include Tata Steel (1.14 per cent), HDFC (1 per cent), Sun Pharma (2.31 percent) and SBI (0.59 per cent).
However, some of the heavyweights bucked the trend and managed to close in the positive. ICICI Bank moved up 0.73 per cent, DLF 3.23 per cent and Tata Motors 2.25 per cent.
Shares of Bharti Airtel settled marginally higher by 0.02 per cent amid anticipation that the USD 10.7-billion deal with Zain Telecom for its African assets would be signed Tuesday.
Analysts said weak European markets also could have added to the profit booking in the domestic market. Britain's FTSE was trading 0.08 per cent down in the mid day trade. However,
Asian cues were positive as China's Shanghai was up 0.15 per cent and Japan's Nikkei gained 1.01 per cent.