The markets on Thursday fell for the second consecutive trading session as investors booked

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profits on recent surge, which took the benchmark indices to the 35-month high earlier this week.

Investors were a bit cautious on housing data from the US scheduled in the evening. The upcoming verdict on the Ayodhya issue also hurts sentiments.

The benchmark Sensex, which opened close to the 20,000 mark, pared gains in the early trade as there were no cues from the Japan, China, Korea and Hong Kong markets which were closed on account of a public holiday.

The 30-pack index slipped 80.71 points, or 0.40 per cent, to close at 19,861.01. Nifty dipped 0.52 per cent to close at 5,959.25.

“We believe investors booked profits for the second day in a row after recent highs. They were cautious ahead of the US housing data, which is going to be announced later in the evening. Chaos ahead of the judgment on the Ayodhya case also added to the sentiments,” managing director of KR Choksey Deven Choksey said.

FIIs were net buyers in the cash market on NSE and BSE to the tune of Rs 1,020 crore. On the equity derivatives side, they were net sellers in index futures and stock futures to the tune of Rs 1,717.40 crore and Rs 860.26 crore, respectively.

Defensive stocks witnessed buying interest. Hindustan Unilever rose 1.71 per cent to Rs 302.75. ITC gained 1.32 per cent to at R 176.60.

“ITC and HUL are two stocks which were underperformers during the last 2-3 months compared with stocks such as GCPL. Sentiments on these two counters have turned positive on better monsoon and a rise in demand. We kept on saying for some time that small profit booking may occur, and now it is happening,” said head of research of Anand Rathi DD Sharma.

ONGC, M&M and Jaiprakash Associates gained 1.49 per cent, 1.32 per cent and 1.11 per cent, respectively. IT stocks, Wipro and Infosys, inched up 0.58 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively

Heavyweights ICICI Bank, Reliance and Bharti declined 2.25 per cent, 2.11 per cent and 1.89 per cent, respectively.

Ranbaxy rose 1.47 pet cent to Rs 564.65 following winning a court battle on an anti-hepatitis B drug.

IVRCL Infra advanced 1.53 per cent to Rs 169.40 after being awarded a road project worth 750 crore. Omaxe, however, dipped .039 per cent to Rs 139.95 even after bagging a contract worth Rs 70.43 crore for construction of 200 wide roads. Volumes were also half the two-week averages.

KPIT Cummins Infosystems rose 3.57 per cent to Rs 162.30 on bulk deals. The company on Wednesday said it would consider acquisition of a US-based firm at its board meeting on September 27. About 46.97 lakh shares of the company exchanged hands against the two-week average volume of 1.50 lakh. Similarly, Development Credit Bank zoomed 8.91 per cent to Rs 55 on bulk deals.

Head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Alex K Mathews said, “Nifty may find support at 5,884 and 5,875 levels while resistance is there at 6,015 and 6,048 levels.”