Indian stocks fell victim to selling pressure in late afternoon

Indian stocks fell victim to selling pressure in late afternoon on Wednesday as traders preferred to book profit ahead of a holiday. Banking, realty and infrastructure stocks saw sales while metals was the lone space which saw a bit of green today.

The Nifty fell 10 points to end the day at 8,251 with Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, NTPC and Adani Ports gaining ground compared with Dr. Reddy's, Asian Paints, BHEL, SBI and PNB that experienced selling. The Nifty had an Advance-Decline Ratio of 22/27.

Infosys, Dr. Reddy's and Tata Motors were the top traded stocks on the exchange.

Broader markets turned weak. Losses were seen on all indices, chiefly the small cap benchmark that slid 0.5 percent. The sectoral space was mixed with indices representing the metals, software and auto sectors posting modest gains whereas the pharma, banking and realty sectors slipped in trade.

Sentiment was flat on the Bombay Stock Exchange as well with the Sensex dropping 19 points to close at 27,288 points. Sun Pharma, Maruti, ICICI Bank fell versus Hindalco, Coal India and Hero Motor that rose. The Sensex had an Advance-Decline Ratio of 17/13 and the top traded stocks were Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Reliance Industries.

Overall, the wider market saw bulls giving up their advantage marginally with 1,326 stocks gaining compared with 1,378 that fell.

The trend was weak in the derivatives space with just 64 futures rising versus 104 that fell. Futures of Castrol, Exide, Reliance Capital and Bajaj Auto rose smartly while those of Federal Bank, GMR Infra, IB Real Estate and Karnataka Bank dropped in trade.

Noida Toll Bridge Company, Mahindra CIE and Kohinoor Foods were among the top volume buzzers on the National Stock Exchange.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)