The markets closed the last trading day of the week on a soft note owing to profit taking, mainly in realty stocks.
The Sensex ended down 140 points at 19,451, and the Nifty dropped 44 points at 5,842.
After outperforming for several days, the mid-cap and small-cap indices too underperformed today and were down 1% each as compared to the BSE benchmark index, which was down 0.7%.
Earlier in the day, the Sensex opened in the positive zone wherein the BSE benchmark index touched a high of 19, 697, only to slide into the negative in the early afternoon trades.
From there on the Sensex moved sideways to touch a low of 19,388, down 309 points from day's high.
After rallying around 10%, markets have been moving sideways for the past three sessions.
Brokerages expect markets to trade in a range as fundamental factors remain unchanged. Edelweiss in its alternative monthly insights noted, "A major part of the rally could be attributed to the flows from the exchange traded funds.
"Still concerns like inflation, rising crude prices, deficit related issues, tumultuous political environment are far from over."
The foreign institutional investor investments have slowed in the past few sessions, according to provisional data from Bombay Stock Exchange FIIs were net buyers of Rs 221 crore (Rs 2.21 billion) while DIIs were net sellers of Rs 213 crore (Rs 2.13 billion)
Realty and Auto indices were down nearly 2% each and were the major laggards throughout the day. Even the positive news of increased sales in automobile failed to cheer the auto sector.
According to the figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, total sales of vehicles across categories registered 19.42% growth to 14,65,909 units in March, 2011, from 12,27,511 units in the same month last year.
On the realty front, after rallying for nearly nine trading sessions, the index was in the negative due to the profit booking seen since morning. The scrips that were battered were Orbit Corporation down 6%, Ackruti City, HDIL, Sobha Developers and DLF down 4-5% each.
Shilpi Cable Technologies, a cables manufacturing company, debuted today at Rs 78, a 13% premium against its issue price of Rs 69 per share on the National Stock Exchange.
The stock hit a high of Rs 85, but later plunged into red to a low of Rs 45.40.
The stock finally closed at Rs 47 - a huge discount of almost 32% to the issue price. The counter saw trades of around 5.2 million shares on the NSE.
