That apart, a spike in food price inflation also rekindled fears of a hike in key policy rates when the Reserve Bank of India reviews its monetary policy on April 20, 2010.  

Sector wise, metal stocks fell as prices declined on the London Metal Exchange. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) slumped more than 2 per cent.

NSE’s volatility index, India VIX, jumped 15.01 per cent to settle at day’s high of 19.92. India VIX is a measure of the market’s expectation of volatility over the next 30 calendar days. The index is calculated based on the S&P CNX Nifty options prices.

Experts believe that stock-specific action may still rule the roost on the bourses in the near term based on expectations of good March-quarter results.  IT bellwether Infosys is to kickstart the reporting season on April 13, 2010.  The popular Sensex at BSE fell 255.62 points or 1.42 per cent to close at 17,714.40 points. The bellwether index of BSE lost 290.68 points at the day’s low of 17,679.34 in late trade, while it fell 9.11 points at the day’s high of 17960.91 in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty at NSE declined 70.20 points or 1.31 per cent to settle at 5,304.45 points in the day’s closing.  The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.4 per cent, while the BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.38 per cent.  

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned weak in contrast to a strong breadth earlier in the day with as many as 1,188 shares on BSE advanced as against 1,688 shares that decline and a total of 81 shares remained unchanged.  Yet, volume increased for first time after March expiry day.  

The markets reported total turnover of Rs 94,583.99 crore, which included Rs 14,247.24 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 75,545.57 crore from the NSE futures and the balance Rs 4,791.18 crore from the BSE cash segment.