Eleven out of 13 sectoral indices on the BSE edged lower, while key indices slipped into red after an intraday recovery pushed in the market into the green for a brief period. Volatility ruled the roost as the market once again faltered as reports of powerful earthquake in Japan.

Back home, investors largely ignored the better-than-expected industrial production figures (IIP data) unveiled by the Government at the Centre this afternoon as continuing turmoil in Libya and high crude oil prices weighed on the market sentiment.

The popular Sensex at BSE was down 153.89 points or 0.84 per cent to close at 18,174.09. It lost 264.69 points at the day’s low and rose 40.45 points at the day’s high.

The 50-unit S&P CNX Nifty was down 48.95 points or 0.89 per cent to settle at 5,445.45 in the day’s closing. The Nifty hit a high of 5,502.70 and low of 5,411.55 during the day. Broader indices wise, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.07 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.12 per cent.

Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities views that the crisis may not have a direct impact on Indian economy and business. However, the Japanese crisis may have a far reaching effect on Indian auto components company.  “Commodities may get affected as crude prices will come down.”

The market breadth, indicating overall health of the market, was weak — after swinging between positive and negative zone earlier — with as many as 1958 shares on BSE declined while 935 shares gained and a total of 115 shares remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3241 crore, higher than Rs 2996 crore on Thursday, 10 March 2011.