Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty gave up early gains to close lower on Monday due to selling in metal, oil and gas and financial stocks as FII outflows dampened the investor sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 168.21 points or 0.28 per cent to settle at 60,092.97 as 15 of its constituents dropped. The barometer opened higher and touched a high of 60,586.77 in morning session. Later in the day, it fell 297.35 points or 0.49 per cent to 59,963.83.
The broader NSE Nifty dipped 61.75 points or 0.34 per cent to end at 17,894.85 as 32 of its stocks dropped.
"The sluggish mood continued as markets moved in a narrow range with a negative bias. Investors are taking a cautious stance as the global macroeconomic scenario remains bleak while FIIs continued to be sellers in domestic equities in the current month, thus dampening the market sentiment," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.
From the Sensex pack, Axis Bank fell the most by 2.26 per cent. NTPC declined 1.16 per cent and HDFC by 1.03 per cent.
Among others, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and ICICI Bank also declined.
HDFC Bank declined nearly 1 per cent even as the firm reported 19.9 per cent jump in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 2022.
Auto major Maruti Suzuki also dropped after the company announced an average 1.1 per cent hike in prices of its models from January 16.
On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Power Grid were among the major winners.
Wipro ended over 1 per cent higher after announcing its December quarter earnings post trading hours on Friday. Wipro reported a better-than-expected 2.8 per cent rise in consolidated net profit for December 2022 quarter to Rs 3,053 crore and exuded optimism about "strong" bookings for the fourth quarter despite global headwinds.