Amid mixed global cues, benchmark indices ended lower on the day of expiry of

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November futures and options contracts. Asian markets, which were up following strong performances by US markets overnight, helped the market gain strength in morning trade. However, the European bourses fell after a steady start, which hurt the domestic market at close.

Sensex shaved off 141.69 points, or 0.73 per cent, to close at 19,318.16. Nifty slid 66 points, or 1.13 per cent, to settle at 5,799.75. India Vix, which gives cues on volatility over the next 30 calendar days, saw a steep 12.36 per cent fall to 21.63.

L&T, Reliance Industries, ITC and some banking stocks led the declines. IT majors gained on healthy US economic data. L&T dropped 3.48 per cent to Rs 1,941.95 after the company said it had bagged fresh orders worth Rs 1,030 crore for its building and factories segment

Other major movers such as RIL, ITC, ICICI Bank and SBI trimmed 1.39 per cent, 1.68 per cent, 0.70 per cent and 0.98 per cent, respectively.

Realty stocks continued to decline and shares of DB Realty hit the lower circuit with 9.99 per cent drop to settle at its all-time low of Rs 235.25, adding to its overall 45.39 per cent decline this month.

HDIL, Orbit Corp, Unitech, Indiabulls Realty and DLF tanked 9.69 per cent, 8.30 per cent, 6.04 per cent and 4.13 per cent, respectively.

Aneesh Srivastava, CIO at IDBI Federal Life Insurance, said, “Investors must do a strong due diligence before selecting real estate stocks. Overall, real estate prices have bounced back while their stocks have underperformed due to the challenging business environment. Stocks in this sector may thus be good picks for long-term investors. However, we would not like to invest in tainted stocks even if they would offer a good upside.”

Scam-hit LIC Housing Finance inched down 0.98 per cent to Rs 1,058.10. The scrip had plunged over 18 per cent on Wednesday following the arrest of its CEO Ramachandran Nair by CBI.

“A further 5-10 per cent correction in the LIC Housing Finance scrip could be a good entry point for investors as we believe despite this incident, the share should trade at a premium to Dewan Housing given its long-term competitive advantage on both sides of the balance sheet — access to low-cost funds on the liability side and access to its parent LIC brand name and distribution channel on asset side,” Pankaj Agarwal and Krishnan ASV of Ambit Capital wrote in a note.

Dewan Housing closed 7.67 per cent down to Rs 282.75. Biggest IT players by sales, Infosys and TCS rose 2.09 per cent and 1.32 per cent on US jobs data and Thanksgiving holiday.

Tata Motors BSE, after the company’s ADR jumped 10.77 per cent to $36 on the NYSE on Wednesday.

Abbott India dropped 4.83 per cent to Rs 1,401.55. The company’s board of directors approved the draft scheme for the amalgamation of Solvay Pharma with the company on Wednesday.

Sun Pharma inched up 0.40 per cent to Rs 456.25 after the company secured tentative approval from the US drug regulator to market a generic version of Cymbalta duloxetine hydrochloride delayed-release capsules.