Snapping the four-session winning streak, the markets reacted negatively on Wednesday with the benchmark Sensex ending lower by a modest 131 points.
 The 30-share Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange settled the day at 16,086.83 points, a fall of 130.66 points, or 0.81 per cent, from Tuesday’s close. The key index touched a high of 16,309.88 in early trade.
The 50-issue S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 48.65 points, or 1.00 per cent, to 4,828.85 from its previous close.
The fall came just a day after the BSE barometer posted its second largest gain of over 928 points on Tuesday on indications of global investment scenario improving.
Marketmen said investors preferred to book profit at existing higher levels, considering that March derivatives contract is ending on Thursday. Most of the Asian indices ended mixed on Wednesday while European markets opened lower, impacting negatively on the local bourses.
Trading volume
On BSE, banking, refinery and pharma counters came under selling pressure, while consumer durable and metal shares registered smart gains on good buying support. The small-cap and mid-cap segments attracted good buying support, reflecting return of retail investors to the market.
Among index-based counters, HUL dipped by 4.31 per cent, ICICI Bank by 4.17 per cent, Bharti Airtel by 3.75 per cent, DLF by 3.07 per cent, BHEL by 2.86 per cent and NTPC by 2.85 per cent. The trading volume was remarkably low at Rs 6,137.44 crore from Rs 6,880.05 crore on Tuesday. The broad-based BSE-100 index declined by 34.92 points to 8,403.35 from previous close of 8,438.27.