Bears tighten grip, Sensex falls 400 pts

Equity benchmark indices retreated from a recent rally on W ednesday amid mixed global cues as investors b ooked pr ofit in heavyweight stocks.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 400 points or 0.77 per cent at 51,704 while the Nifty 50 crac ked by 1 05 points or 0.68 per c ent to 15,209.

Most sectoral indices a t the Na tional Stoc k Exchange w ere in the r ed with Nifty IT do wn b y 1.3 per cent, pri vate bank b y 0.9 per cent and pharma by 1.7 per cent.

But Nif ty PSU bank was up by 5.8 per cent.

Among stocks, Nestle India cracked by 3 per cent to Rs 16,700 per shar e on weak December quar ter results.

Private lenders HDFC Bank and Indus Ind Bank dropped by 2.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent r espectively. Bajaj Finserv was down by 2.5 per cent, Maruti Suzuki by 2.5 per cent, Dr R eddy's by 2.1 per cent and W ipro by 1.6 per cent.

However, Ad ani P orts gained by 2.7 per cent to Rs 654 per shar e after the company said it has completed the acquisition of Dighi Port for Rs 705 crore.

The other g ainers were Hero MotoCor p, Sta te Bank of India, Reliance Industries, GAIL, NTPC and ONGC.

Meanwhile, Asian shares slipped as in vestors booked p rofits after a r ecent rally.

The Nikkei share average fell by 0.87 per cent.

South Korean shares fell after gaining for three consecutive sessions as the number of ne w Co vid-19 cases hitting the hig hest levels in 39 da ys w eighed on sentiment.