The Sensex shed 44 points as investors feared that the sudden spike in brent crude over $114 a barrel could upset the turnaround plans of the Government.

The benchmark index opened on a positive note at 25,327 against the previous close of 25,246. It made a high of 25,426 and low of 25,070 before closing at 25,202.

The turnover was down at Rs 3,878 crore against Rs 4,289 crore recorded on Wednesday.

On the NSE, Nifty was down 17 points at 7,541.

Index heavyweight ITC gained one per cent to Rs 336. Many PSU stocks declined after market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India at its board meeting on Thursday recommended that all listed companies including PSUs should have at least 25 per cent public shareholding in three years.

Some of the companies such as Coal India (-2%), Sail (-4%), Nalco (-3%) and NHPC (-0.38%) fell sharply. The Government owns 80 per cent in these companies.

State-run upsteam oil companies share prices dropped on concerns that the subsidy burden will increase with the rise in crude oil prices. ONGC lost five per cent to Rs 420. Oil India shed 6 per cent to Rs 561. ONGC and Oil India share part of the under-recoveries of state-run oil refining-cum-marketing firms arising from the government-imposed price caps on prices three key fuels -- diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.

Major gainers were Bharat Electricals (8%), Max India (5%), UPL (3%), Colgate Palmolive (3%), Indusind Bank (3%) and Future Retail (3%).

Prominent losers were United Spirits (-8%), OIL India (-6%), ONGC (-5%), BPCL (-4%), Adani Enter (-4%) and HPCL (-4%).

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