The benchmark indices witnessed selling pressure in the second half, after seeing a consolidation for one and half sessions and ended lower. There was a news that large hedge fund offloaded exposure in major stocks, after 2 pm.

The Sensex closed below the 12,000 mark while the Nifty slipped below the 3700 level, after crossing for the first time since October 7, 2008. Shares of financials, technology, auto, capital goods, FMCG, metal, oil marketing and realty companies saw selling pressure followed by midcaps.

The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 3625.05, down 1.01% or 36.85 points, after shedding 92 points from day's high of 3717.05. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed 178.33 points or 1.47% lower at 11,952.75, after losing 319.35 points from day's high of 12,272.10.

Rajat K Bose of rajatkbose.com said, "Unless the Nifty falls below 3,590 it would be a bit too premature to take a negative call on the market. I would advice keeping positions light and do not be too adventurous to actually buy on this dip immediately because number of stocks have actually reached their major resistance levels but don't be gung-ho on the short side either."

Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities said, "At every level, the market is witnessing the profit booking which is good fundamentally. Maybe after the stress test results are out for the banks in the US tomorrow, you could see the resumption of the trend once again on Friday and we can continue with that particular uptrend till the middle of the next week when one can probably expect the Nifty to go at around 3,760 and 3,820 thereafter. At that level you should see major amount of profit booking coming in and that is also going to be a time synchronizing well with the election result in that week. So maybe we are going to see that kind of a trend emerging hereafter."

Among the frontliners, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, DLF, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries and Unitech were down 4.7-6.4%.
 
On the sectoral front, the BSE Realty Index slipped 3.74%. Bank, Metal and FMCG indices were down 2-3%. Capital Goods, IT and Auto indices fell 0.8-1.5%.

The broader indices also witnessed selling pressure - BSE Midcap Index declined 43.03 points or 1.16%, to 3,675.84 and Smallcap Index fell 9.57 points or 0.23%, to settle at 4,153.01.

Volumes were better than previous session; total traded turnover stood at Rs 82,086.68 crore. This included Rs 18,618.29 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 57,634.57 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5,833.82 crore from BSE cash segment.

The market breadth was almost mixed. About 1426 shares advanced while 1548 shares declined. Nearly 138 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues

At the time of closing of Indian equities, the european markets were marginally up. The FTSE was up 23 points, to 4,360. The CAC rose 23 points, to 3,248 and the DAX was trading at 4,860, up just 7 points.

However, the US futures were bit soft. The Dow Jones futures slipped 12 points, to 8,370 and the Nasdaq futures declined 6 points, to 1,421.25.

Asian markets ended strong. Straits Times surged 5.05% and Taiwan Weighted gained 2.93%. Hang Seng was up 2.46% and Shanghai Composite rose 0.98%. Jakarta Composite gained 1.48%. However, Kospi fell 0.32%. Nikkei was shut today.

Asian markets were trading mixed. Taiwan Weighted gained 3% and Shanghai Composite was up 1%. Hang Seng went up 0.3%. However, Straits Times and Kospi fell 0.2-0.4%. Nikkei is shut today.