MUMBAI: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty gave up early gains to close in negative territory on Thursday dragged down by IT and pharma stocks which fell amid fears of recession in the global economy.
The 30-share Sensex opened higher and rose further to touch a day's high of 60,676.12 on gains in auto and capital goods shares.
However, it gave up all early gains and later closed 412.96 points or 0.68 per cent lower at 59,934.01. The barometer fell 481.22 points or 0.79 per cent to a low of 59,865.75 during the session.
The Nifty dipped 126.35 points or 0.7 per cent to settle at 17,877.40. From the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra fell the most by 3.13 per cent.
Infosys, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank and Indusind Bank were among the major laggards.
Maruti, Power Grid, NTPC, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India ended higher.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Defying the positive trend of global markets, domestic indices shed early gains, dragged by losses in IT and pharma sectors, while mid & small caps outperformed." Fears of a recession in the global economy exacerbated selling pressure in IT and pharma stocks, Nair said.
"Markets traded volatile on the weekly expiry day and lost over half a per cent due to profit-taking across sectors. After the initial uptick, the Nifty index slipped gradually lower as the day progressed and finally settled around the day's low. A mixed trend was witnessed across sectors wherein auto and energy showed decent traction while IT and healthcare remained under pressure," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.31 per cent and smallcap index advanced marginally by 0.06 per cent. Among the BSE sectoral indices, IT fell 1.63 per cent, followed by teck (1.50 per cent), metal (1.09 per cent), realty (1.01 per cent), healthcare (0.88 per cent) and consumer durables (0.76 per cent).
Consumer discretionary goods & services, industrials, utilities, auto and power ended higher. Asian markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Shanghai and Seoul settled lower. The US markets had ended on a positive note on Wednesday.
Globally, in light of the elevated inflation in the US, investors are on an edge, assessing the possibility of a higher magnitude of a rate hike in the next Fed policy meeting, Nair said.
Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.04 per cent to USD 94.06 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors offloaded Rs 1,397.51 crore from the domestic equities on Wednesday.