The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex on Tuesday hit the 6,000-mark in futures trading, but lost ground towards the end, tracking the cash markets in an extremely volatile trading day.
As a result, the combined turnover in the market (cash and derivatives) scaled an all-time high of Rs 25,546.11 crore (Rs 255.46 billion), with the turnover at the derivatives market recording a lifetime high of Rs 15,656 crore (Rs 156.56 billion).
Click here to take today's poll
The Sensex touched a high of 5,920.76 and a low of 5,762.60 in the last hour of trading. It finally closed at 5,791.85, down 0.09 per cent (5.48 points) over Monday's close.
Dealers said profit taking at higher levels by foreign institutional investors and domestic funds led to the market closing in negative territory. The National Stock Exchange S&P CNX Nifty lost 0.80 points to close at 1,873.25, off the day's high of 1,914.40.
Jitendra Panda, vice-president at Motilal Oswal Securities, said: "The market lost ground towards the end with bulk investors reorganising their year-end portfolios and booking profits at high year-end levels."
Reflecting hectic selling, the breadth of the market was negative with 1,388 declines to 534 stocks advances at close.
Strong gains in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Reliance somewhat offset losses in other blue-chip counters. ONGC climbed 4.4 per cent at Rs 781.90 and Reliance Industries 4.5 per cent at Rs 560.95.
Among other heavyweight Sensex stocks, the State Bank of India scrip was down 1.70 per cent at Rs 528, ITC 1.18 per cent at Rs 981.40 and Hindustan Lever 0.10 per cent at Rs 205.65.
