The Sensex ended the day lower by 76 points (provisional), while the Nifty lost 31 points in trade. Among the losers in trade today were the heavyweights including Larsen and Toubro, which shed almost 4 per cent, while ICICI Bank was the other big loser dropping more then 3 per cent in trade.

IT stocks were the star performers with Tata Consultancy Services zooming 3.4 per cent, while other notable gainers from the space were Wipro and HCL Tech.

PSU banking stocks came in for some heavy selling pressure on worries that the RBI would again hike rates in their forthcoming policy meet.

Bank of India, Canara Bank and Union Bank were the major losers from the PSU banking space. PSU power major NTPC lost as much as 10 per cent in trade after the CERC released new norms for generation and transmission.

Tata Power also lost ground after the release of the CERC norms.

The notable gainers were Hero Motor Corp and Sesa Sterlite from the Nifty stocks. Infra and capital goods stocks which had a sharp run in the last few days continued to gain with Voltas ending the day 4 per cent higher.

Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading in the red led by losses in the Nikkei and the Seoul Composite. The US saw a strong closing overnight with the S&P 500 closing at a new record high of 1808 points.

GoodReturns.in