Sensex slips 56 points after three days of gains

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Wednesday closed in the negative territory -- down 56 points or 0.24 percent -- after three consecutive sessions of record gains, as oil and gas and capital goods stocks came under heavy selling pressure.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) had Tuesday crossed the 24,000-mark for the first time in its history.

The Sensex opened Wednesday at 23,897.88 points and ended trade at 23,815.12 points (provisional), down 56.11 points or 0.24 percent from the previous day's close at 23,871.23 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 23,964.67 points and a low of 23,753.36 points intra-day.

Healthy buying was observed in metal, consumer durables, realty, bank and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks.

However, oil and gas, capital goods, healthcare, information technology (IT) and automobile scrips came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE metal index gained 339.29 points, consumer durables index surged 165.92 points, realty index went up 63.44 points, bank index rose 49.94 points, and FMCG index moved up by 43.47 points.

However, Oil and gas index was down 83.73 points, followed by capital goods index which fell 47.43 points, healthcare index declined by 31.66 points, IT slipped by 27.20 points and automobile index was 3.60 points lower.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too closed flat at 7,108.75 points from its previous day's close of 7,108.40 points.