The benchmark indices closed sharply lower on the first day of the week, ahead of Election results on Saturday. Negative global cues also weighed on the markets. Both the indices were volatile in the first couple of hours of the trade. The sell-off was seen in shares of infrastructure, telecom, metal, FMCG, cement, realty, technology and oil & gas exploration companies. The broader indices too slipped and kept the market breadth in favour of declines.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed below the 12,000 mark, fell 193.44 points or 1.63%, to 11,682.99. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched an intraday low of 3534.55, before ending the day at 3554.60, down 1.83% or 66.10 points. Among the broader indices - the BSE Midcap Index slipped 1.56% or 59 points, to 3,711.42 and the Smallcap Index lost 2.15% or 91.94 points, to settle at 4,185.32.

Ajay Loganadan, HSBC Private Banking said, "While leading upto the elections we are going to see probably plenty of volatility and nervousness and that's what we are witnessing today, some amount of pullback. We can't forget that our markets have rallied from the bottom with almost a 50% jump from 8,100-8,200 levels, so we are witnessing a lot of profit booking now."

He also said, "Post results it's really going to depend on what we get as far as results go. As far as what the market has been factoring in is a Congress or BJP led collation. If we get any surprises from that front, we could see the market react pretty negatively. But otherwise people will or atleast traders would start to lighten up positions ahead of election results given this week that we are in and post results it is very difficult to tell."

Among the frontliners, Unitech tumbled 9%. DLF, SBI, Reliance Communication, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Ranbaxy Labs, HUL, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Grasim, BHEL, TCS and Hindalco declined 2-5%.

On the sectoral front, the BSE Realty Index slid 5.2%. Capital Goods, Power, Metal, Oil & Gas, FMCG, Healthcare and IT indices fell 1-2.5%.

Sectoral indices
The BSE Realty Index underperformed other indices, slipped 5.19% or 122.34 points, to settle at 2,233.27, as Unitech lost 8.90%. Orbit Corporation, Parsvnath, DLF, Omaxe and HDIL declined 3.9-8.5%.

Infrastructure stocks were the real draggers in today's trade, not only the leading players but also the midcaps and smallcaps. The BSE Capital Goods Index fell 2.48% or 211.16 points, to 8,296.13 and the Power Index lost 1.88% or 40.86 points, to 2,135.48.

In the capital goods space, Punj Lloyd, Siemens, L&T, BHEL and ABB fell 1.7-3.6%. Among the power stocks, Torrent Power, CESC, GMR Infra, Reliance Power, Suzlon Energy, GVK Power and Reliance Infrastructure lost 1-5.7%.

Huge selling pressure was also seen in the telecom sector; Reliance Communication, Tata Communication, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices fell 2.5-4.6%.

The metal stocks witnessed profit booking after the high-powered government panel deferred a decision on imposition of 25% safeguards duty on HR coils allegedly being dumped into the country.

Decline in base metals also weighed on stocks. Shanghai copper and zinc fell 5%. The BSE Metal Index tumbled 1.72% or 136.70 points, to 7,813.17. SAIL, Hindustan Zinc, JSL, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Sterlite were down 1-4%.

In the oil & gas space, Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum lost nearly 2% each. ONGC was down 0.34%. Respective Index was down 139.73 points or 1.65%, to 8,329.70. However, BPCL, IOC and HPCL gained.

FMCG stocks like United Breweries, GSK Consumer, HUL, United Spirits, Tata Tea and Godrej Consumer declined 1-5.4%. ITC was down 0.45%. The Index was down 22.85 points or 1.09%, to 2,070.61.

The BSE Healthcare Index fell 1.06% or 33.25 points, to settle at 3,089.47, as Cipla, Sun Pharma Advanced, Glenmark, Ranbaxy Labs and Biocon lost 1-3.7%.

Technology stocks like TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Infosys were losers. The BSE IT Index lost 28.64 points or 1.05%, to 2,696.71.

There was a mixed trend in banking and auto sectors. The BSE Bankex fell 0.75% or 44.91 points, to 5,962.56 and the Auto Index lost 20.03 points or 0.55%, to 3,631.99.

In the banking space, SBI tumbled 4.86% and PNB was down 1.55% while ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were gainers.

Among the auto stocks, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Bharat Forge fell 3.5-5.4% while M&M and Maruti Suzuki were gainers.

In the midcap space, India Cements, Pantaloon Retail, Bayer Cropscience, Lakshmi Energy, Future Capital, Godrej Industries, Nagarjuna Construction, Videocon Industries and Deccan Chronicle declined 6-8.7%.

Swaraj Engines, Geodesic, Graphite India, Panyam Cements, Accentia Techno, Sterlite Techno and MSP Steel were down 8-10% in the smallcap space.

The market breadth was negative; about 1144 shares advanced while 1829 shares declined. Nearly 143 shares remained unchanged.

Volumes were on the lower side today; total traded turnover stood at Rs 63,790.39 crore. This included Rs 13,623.12 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 45,810.47 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,356.80 crore from BSE cash segment.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading lower. The FTSE fell 39 points, to 4,422. The CAC slipped 50 points, to 3,262 and the DAX lost 49 points, to 4,864.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones Futures declined 91 points, to 8,425 and the Nasdaq futures fell 21.75 points, to 1,367.25.

Asian markets ended marginally mixed. Straits Times plunged 3.22%. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Jakarta Composite lost 1.7% each. However, Taiwan Weighted gained 0.97%. Nikkei and Kospi rose just 0.2% each.