Despite staging a few sharp rallies during the course of the session, the market never really looked good enough to force its way up into the positive territory today as weakness exhibited by stocks on the Asian and European bourses rendered the mood extremely cautious.

Disppointing home sales reports had pushed Wall Street to a weak close on Thursday. Taking cues, Asian markets struggled for a better part of the day though most of them managed to wipe off a substantial portion of their losses thanks to some spirited buying in late trades. However, with a long weekend and a holiday shortened week ahead, investors back home were reluctant to build up positions today.

The Sensex, which moved in a range of around 200 points today, ended the session at 16,693 with a loss of 88.43 points or 0.53%. It touched a high of 16,812.02 and a low of 16,613.22 today.

The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange, which hit a high of 4994.35 and a low of 4931.25 in intra-day trades, closed 27.60 points or 0.55% down at 4958.95.

Metal stocks were among the prominent losers. Information technology, bank and telecom stocks were also seen struggling for support. Capital goods and power stocks failed to hold at higher levels.

Pharma stocks, led by Dr Reddy's Laboratories, turned in a sparkling display today. Select consumer durables, oil, realty and FMCG stocks moved higher.

Tata Steel, the most prominent loser in the Sensex, ended lower by 2.85%. ICICI Bank lost around 2.5%. Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power and Wipro ended lower by around 2%.

Hindalco, Infosys Technologies, Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communictions, State Bank of India, ACC, HDFC Bank and Larsen & Toubro also closed on a weak note.

Sun Pharmaceuticals ended stronger by over 7%. Reliance Industries moved up 1.25%. ITC, ONGC and DLF closed with modest gains.

HCL Technologies, Jindal Steel, SAIL, ABB and Idea Cellular were among the prominent losers in the Nifty index. Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Cairn India, BPCL and Nalco ended on a firm note.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories moved up by over 10%. Orchid Chemicals gained 9.2%. Aurobindo Pharma ended 8.5% up. Biocon, Glaxo Smithkline Pharmaceuticals, Divi's Laboratories, Pfizer, Sun Pharma Advanced Research, Dishman Pharma, IPCA Laboratories, Piramal Healthcare, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Wockhardt also signed off on a buoyant note today.

Several midcap and smallcap stocks rallied sharply on sustained buying support. The market breadth was quite strong at close. Out of 2855 stocks traded on BSE today, 1628 stocks closed higher. 1137 stocks declined and 90 stocks ended flat.