The Nifty ended the day lower by 34 points, while the Sensex shed 102 points in trade.

Shares of Tata Motors plunged after the company said that the EBTIDA margin for the quarter ending Dec 31 would be lower than the previous quarters for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
L&T, however, jumped after the company reported decent net profits and strong order book flows for the December quarter.

Real estate stocks got battered in trade today, led by HDIL which slumped after reports that the promoters had sold their stake in the company. Other realty stocks that dropped were Sobha Developers, Unitech and DB Realty.

PSU banks were badly hit after Andhra Bank reported higher than expected non performing assets. Andhra Bank dropped more than 5 per cent in trade, with other PSU banking stocks also falling. Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, State Bank of India and Canara Bank all dropped sharply in trade.

Metal stocks also saw some serious selling pressure with Hindalco Industries, Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries joining the list of metal losers.

Bharti Airtel which rallied sharply on Wednesday following a voice tariff hike shed more than 1 per cent. Hindustan Unilever which fell after its results recovered some ground and gained 1 per cent in trade.

Heavyweight, Reliance Industries dropped more than 1 per cent, while another heavyweight ITC ended the day with gains.

ONGC ended the day flat after rallying sharply on reports that the government was planning to hike the prices of gas.

Meanwhile, markets in Europe were trading higher with the French CAC, UK's FTSE and the German DAX trading in the green. Indian markets would now take cues from the forthcoming credit policy on January 29, 2013.

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