The stock market on Wednesday ended lower in a volatile session. At close, the Sensex was down 244.98 points or 0.29% at 83,382.71, and the Nifty was down 66.70 points or 0.26% at 25,665.60.
The mid and small-cap segments also outperformed as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed the day 0.16% and 0.25% higher, respectively.
Among the sectors, those recorded gains were Nifty Metal up by 2.70% and PSU Bank up by 2.13%. Most of the other sectoral indices ended lower.
Nifty IT was down 1.08%, Realty, Auto, and FMCG declined by over half a per cent each.
Further, the Nifty Bank ended flat, but the Financial Services index fell 0.31%.
The top gainers of Nifty were Tata Steel (3.71%), NTPC (3.28%), and Axis Bank (2.93%) while Asian Paints (2.40%), TCS (2.15%), and Tata Consumer (1.72%) ended as the top losers.
Out of 4,344 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,017 advanced, while 2,150 declined. Some 177 stocks remained unchanged.
Over 150 stocks hit a 52-week low. Some of the notable ones on lows were Poly Medicure, Tube Investment, Cohance Life, Godrej Properties, Whirlpool of India, Dixon Technologies, Bata India, IRCTC, Happiest Minds, ITC, and Brainbees Solutions.
In terms of the realty stocks, Prestige Estates shares fell around 2%, Macrotech Developers (Lodha), Brigade Enterprises and Phoenix Mills shares fell over 1%, Anant Raj and Godrej Properties shares fell around 1%.
Tata Elxsi emerged as the top laggard among Nifty 500 stocks, falling 5.3% to Rs 5,485 apiece. Polycab India slipped another 3% to settle at Rs 7,323 apiece.
The market will remain shut on Thursday, January 15, on account of municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra.