The benchmark indices ended lower, after seeing extreme volatility throughout the session, ahead of the exit polls in the evening and election results on May 16, 2009. Profit booking was seen in shares of oil & gas exploration, infrastructure, technology, banking and metal companies. The Nifty touced the 3700 mark again during the day and the Sensex closed above the 12,000 level.

Among the frontliners, Reliance Industries, ONGC, SBI, NTPC, TCS, SAIL, Infosys, HDFC Bank, ITC, Reliance Communication, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and Sterlite were the draggers, slipped 1-4%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shut shop at 12,019.65, down 1.14% or 138.38 points, after seeing a swing of 322 points between an intraday high of 12,256.43 and low of 11,934.44. The 50-share NSE Nifty closed 1.25% or 45.85 points lower at 3,635.25; it swung 99.4 points between day's high/low of 3709.60 and 3610.20, respectively.

Today was the last day of polling and in the evening, the process of exit polls will start, where people will get some idea that who will be frontrunners for forming a government. This was the main reason behind today's choppiness. Experts believe that the volatility will continue till the forming of the government.

R Balakrishnan, Investment Analyst said, "Now people would like to wait and watch. We would see a extreme bouts of volatility and the key is not as to who forms the government but when is the decision going to clear as to the government getting formed. Because the way you look at it, coalitions are not new to the market and every party has been in some kind of power or the other over the last 8-9 years. So the time lag between the results and the government forming and the cabinet getting announced is going to be extremely sharp and volatile. The best is to just stay away, keep your money."

Sudarshan Sukhani of Technical Trends said, "We will see a lot of volatility as we reach the election results day and subsequently, and this is just a sample or a trailer of what we can expect in the next few days. So it's not just another choppy session, it's the sessions that are going to happen again and again because of a big news event. The wise way to trade it is to stay away from the markets."

On the sectoral front, the BSE Metal Index slipped 2%. IT, FMCG, Oil & Gas, Bank, Power and Realty indices fell 1-1.5%.

Two big promoters sold shares via block deals. About 16.8 crore DLF shares changed hands at Rs 230 a share and the deal size stood at Rs 3,864 crore. Promoters sold 9.9% stake via block deal to institutional investors.

There was a block deal of 3 crore Suzlon shares at Rs 82 per share. The deal size was of Rs 246 crore. The promoters sold 2.3% stake.

Sectoral indices
There was an upward slope in volumes since Monday. Total traded turnover stood at Rs 89,787.73 crore - higher compared to Rs 74,140.06 crore on Tuesday and Rs 63,790.39 crore on Monday. The break-up: Rs 16,093.98 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 64,035.11 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 9,658.64 crore from the BSE cash segment.

The BSE Metal Index underperformed other indices, declined 2.07% or 165.53 points, to settle at 7,812.99. JSL, Tata Steel, Sterlite, SAIL, Jindal Saw and JSW Steel went down 1-4%.

Technology along with banking and oil & gas exploration was another space that remained under pressure. The BSE IT Index fell 1.56% or 44.13 points, to 2,792.64. HCL Tech was down 3.9%. TCS went down 2.36% and Infosys fell 1.51%.

The BSE Bankex slipped 1.14% or 71.29 points, to 6,179.39, as SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank declined 1.6-2.6%.

Oil & Gas space was the main dragger, respective Index lost 1.39% or 120.38 points, to 8,539.81. ONGC plunged 3.44%. Cairn India, Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and IOC fell 1-1.9%.

FMCG stocks like United Breweries, Tata Tea, Nestle, ITC and HUL were down 1.5-3.8%, which pushed the respective index down by 1.54% or 32.27 points, to close at 2,059.42.

Among the power stocks, Suzlon Energy, Areva T&D, GMR Infra, Reliance Power, GVK Power, Power Grid Corp, Tata Power and NTPC declined 1-5%. The BSE Power Index fell 21.64 points or 0.98%, to 2,178.23.

In the realty space, Unitech, Puravankara Projects, DLF, Parsvnath and Orbit Corporation fell 1-3.2%. The BSE Realty Index closed 22.15 points or 0.96% lower at 2,295.42.

There was a mixed trend in capital goods, auto and helthcare sectors. These indices slipped 48.09 points to 8,473.82, 16.96 points to 3,679 and 14.13 points to 3,116.56, respectively.

In the capital goods space, L&T and BHEL were losers while Siemens and Punj Lloyd gained. Among the auto stocks, Maruti Suzuki and M&M went down 2.4-2.6% while Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge and Tata Motors went up 0.5-2%.

Broader indices - BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were quiet in trade today, gained 4.79 points at 3,741.45 and 20.50 points at 4,220.21, respectively.

Market breadth was weak; about 1232 shares advanced while 1429 shares declined. Nearly 456 shares were unchanged on the BSE.

Global cues
Global markets were quiet in trade today. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were flat in trade. The FTSE was down just 12 points, to 4,412 and the DAX fell 3 points, to 4,851. However, the CAC was up 1.5 points, to 3,232.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones Futures were down 21 points, to 8,415 and the Nasdaq futures fell 7 points, to 1,378.

Asian markets ended higher barring Hang Seng. Shanghai Composite was up 1.74% and Jakarta Composite gained 1.31%. Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.33-0.82%. However, Hang Seng fell 0.55%.