The 30-share index Sensex on Wednesday marked its closure at a nearly two month low at 16,408.49 after shedding 467.27 points on heavy selling by FIIs and pessimistic advice from international markets. The broad-based Nifty ended below 5k at 4,919.65 after losing 146.55 points.

Germany's decision to banish naked shorting of some financial instruments comprising shares of ten German financial companies distressed world stocks, with the domestic stock markets.

The scrips, which saw heavy selling activity included banking, IT, metal, FMCG, consumer durables and real estate. The overall breadth of the stock market remained feeble and all the sectoral indices on BSE closed in the negative.

On BSE, 2246 shares fell down as against 601 shares advanced.

BSE recorded turnover of Rs 4532 crore as compared to Rs 4421.91 crore on Tuesday.

Intraday volatility remained high. The stock market made recovery from lower after an opening slide, actuated by weak Asian scrips. The market broke again later but again retrieved from lower level during the opening trade.

The Sensex started the day at 16,802.39, later, it declined 73.37 points at the day's high of 16,802.39 during early trade. The stock index dropped 502.44 points at the day's low of 16,373.32 during late trade, its lowest since February 26, 2010.

The major losers comprised Sterlite Inds, ICICI Bank, M & M, RCom, JP Asso, Hindalco, Tata Steel, DLF, ITC, Rel Infra, Bharti Airtel, HUL, SBI, Grasim, HDFC, TCS, ACC and NTPC.

The top gainers were Hero Honda, Cipla and Tata Power.

According to the broking house Anand Rathi, the stock markets saw continued selling activity on Wednesday and marked its closure near day's low levels.

The broking house also said, "In the continuation of mixed global markets today our market may open steady but witness selling pressure at higher levels. If S&P CNX Nifty falls below 4,900 levels, then again aggravate selling pressure may be experienced and we may test 4,865-4,830 levels. On upside if it stays above 4,965 levels then a pull back may be seen in the market towards 5,000-5,120 levels."

The broking house added that caution is advised in the stock market as signals throughout the world are weighing heavy on Indian bourses, any added pressure on worldwide indices may place Indian markets on a lower level.