The stock market on Wednesday fell for the third day in a row with the benchmark Sensex shedding another 111 points, despite sharp gains registered by heavyweights like Reliance Industries and State Bank of India.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex settled at 19,289.83 points, down 110.84 points or 0.6 per cent from its previous close of 19,400.67 points.
In a volatile trading session, the barometer index swayed over 400 points during the day between its intra-day high and low levels of 19,678.50 and 19,249.47 points respectively.
The sluggish mood in other Asian markets was named as the key factor behind today's fall, while some traders also attributed it to profit booking ahead of Diwali.
The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed 4.15 points down at 5,782.35 points, from Tuesday's close of 5,786.50.
However, shares of the country's most valued firm RIL, which also carries the maximum weightage on the Sensex, defied the slide and gained about four per cent. Another heavyweight SBI also rose by about 2.7 per cent.
Rally in RIL shares was credited to fresh gas findings by the company in the Krishna Godavari offshore basin.
Rally in RIL shares was credited to fresh gas findings by the company in the Krishna Godavari offshore basin.
IT majors Infosys, Satyam and Wipro, telecom giants such as Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel, state-run energy giant ONGC, Anil Ambani group's REL and private sector banking majors ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were among the prominent losers.