Snapping the three-day rally, Sensex closed lower 71 points at 21,255 on profit booking. Sensex opened on the lower side at 21,294 against the previous close of 21,326. It made a high of 21327 and low of 21175.

In NSE, Nifty was down 31 points at 6,333.

Most IT companies on BSE gained after the US Government reported encouraging economic data. TCS (up 4%), Hexaware Technologies (up 4%), Tech Mahindra (up 2%), Wipro (up 2%), HCL Technologies (up 1%) and Infosys (up 1%) edged higher.

The S&P BSE IT index was up 2 per cent at 8,467.

Shares of power generation and power distribution firms dipped after the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission tightened rules for tariffs and operations for the sector in its draft 2014-19 guidelines.

The major gainers were Hindustan Zinc (7%), Oberoi Realty (5%), Indian Hotels (5%), MRF (5%), JSW Energy (4%), TCS (4%), Hero MotoCorp (4%), CESC (4%) and Nalco (4%).

Losers of the day include NTPC (-11%), Torrent Power (-5%), Adani Power (-4%), JP INFRA TEC (-4%), JP Power (-4%), L&T (-4%), L&T Finance (-4%), Reliance Cap (-4%), IRB Infra (-4%), Union Bank (-4%) and BHEL (-4%).

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