On domestic front, Food inflation fell to the negative territory to -3.36% for the week ended December 24, which drove markets up early in a day.

Overall breadth of the markets remained volatile today as investors preferred profit-booking in the absence of any proper direction.

Amongst the sectoral indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Oil & Gas and Realty ended low by 1.83% and 1.68%, respectively.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Cairn, PNB, Bajaj Auto, IDFC and Axis Bank ended high by 4.27%, 3.74%, 3.06%, 3.02% and 2.86%, respectively.

While the top volume losers on the NSE were DLF (4.12%), Gail (3.28%), BPCL (2.69%), Reliance (2.60%) and NTPC (2.09%).

On European front, most of the European markets opened weak, with CAC 40 was seen trading low by 1.02% while FTSE 100 weak by 0.65%.

Most of the Asian markets too ended red barring Hong Kong's Hang Seng which ended green by 0.46%, China's Shanghai ended low by 0.95% while Japan's Nikkei down by 0.83%.

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