Indian equity markets ended with a negative bias after a late cool off in banking stocks dragged the indices to their day's low.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell over 450 points from the day's high to end 80 points lower at 48,093. The NSE Nifty 50 too fell over 120 points from the highest point of the day to end nine points lower at 14,137. This is the first instance since October 30 when both the benchmarks have declined for two consecutive days.
Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Bank failed to hold the 32,000 mark after trading above it for most parts of the day. The index fell 220 points from the day's high to end with gains of 0.5% at 31,956.
The Nifty Metal index, which was the top performing index in today's session, also cooled off from the day's high but ended with gains of 3.8%. The index ended at the highest level since October 2018.
Other gainers today included the Nifty Realty which gained 1.3% and the PSU Bank index, which gained 0.7%.
The laggards in today's session were FMCG and I.T. stocks. The FMCG index fell 0.9% while the I.T. index declined 0.7%.
Broader markets, however, outperformed the benchmark indices. The midcap index ended with gains of 1.4% while the Smallcap index rose by a similar quantum.
1,183 stocks on the NSE ended with gains while 709 stocks declined.