Dealers say the sell-off in blue chips was sparked by exchange traded funds which have been selling heavily since Wednesday. The Nifty fell by 21 points to end the day at 5553 and the Sensex dropped 59 points.

Among the other losers were ICICI Bank, which shed more then 2 per cent, dropping below the Rs 1000 mark.

IDFC, NTPC, Grasim, Indusind Bank and TCS were the other stocks which added pressure on the indices. NMDC shed 4 per cent on reports that demand for iron ore has been reducing particularly from lower demand from China.

Maruti Suzuki had a stellar day with the stock jumping more then 7 per cent as a weaker yen is likely to reduce costs and improve margins for the company.

Apart from Maruti the other gainers from the Nifty were mostly from the oil and gas space including ONGC, BPCL and GAIL.

Sugar stocks rallied after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) last night approved a proposal to abolish the levy-sugar mechanism

Balrampur Chini rallied 3 per cent, Bajaj Hindustan 1.5 per cent, Shree Renuka Sugars more then 2 per cent and Dhampur Sugar 6 per cent.
'
Dr Reddy's Labs also rose after the pharma major has launched Zoledronic Acid injection, a generic version of Reclast injection in the US market.

Realty stocks that were hammered on Thursday ended the day mixed. Shares of Indiabulls, Parsavnath and Unitech dropped, while Oberoi and Sobha rose. a

PSU banking stocks also ended the day lower with Syndicate Bank amongst the worst performing stock from the space.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia ended mixed with the Japanese market rallying following stimulus measures there, while the Korean and Hong Kong markets ended lower.

GoodReturns.in