Opening on a positive note, sentiments in the capital market was hit by the data which showed that foreign funds offloaded shares for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. Foreign institutional investors sold share worth Rs 1,267 crore on Tuesday and Rs 1,334 crore on Monday.

The Sensex opened on the higher side at 20,784 against the previous close of 20,684. It made a high of 20,829 and low of 20,614 before losing 36 points to close at 20,647.

The turnover on BSE was down at Rs 1,769 crore against Rs 2,451 crore recorded on Tuesday.

On NSE, Nifty was down six points at 6,120.

Reliance Industries extended its fall during the later half of the trading session to close at Rs 837 on BSE.

Oil marketing companies BPCL and IOC gained four per cent and five per cent to Rs 355 and Rs 235, respectively. HPCL surged six per cent to Rs 240 after the company said that its wholly owned subsidiary has entered into a sale purchase pact with AWE,Australia to acquire stake in two gas fields for total consideration of A$ 85 million. The announcement was made during trading hours today.

ICICI Bank edged lower by two per cent to Rs 1,002 as the bank's ratio of net non-performing asset rose to 0.81 per cent in the December quarter from 0.73 per cent in the September quarter. Net non-performing assets in the December quarter were Rs 3,121 crore against Rs 2,707 crore in the September quarter.

The bank's net profit rose 13 per cent to Rs 2,532 crore on 15 per cent increase in total income at Rs 14,256 crore. The result was announced during trading hours today.

Major gainers were Maruti Suzuki (7%), Adani Enter (6%), HPCL (6%), Indian Oil Corp (5%), Godrej Inds (5%), United Phosphorus (5%), Aurobindo Phar (5%), Piramal Ent (4%), Future Retail (4%), BHEL (4%), BPCL (4%) and Godrej Cons (4%).

Prominent losers include IOB (-6%), Sobha Dev (-5%), Pipavav Defence (-5%), Financial Tech (-4%) and IDBI Bank (-3%).

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