Heavy profit booking ahead of a three-day holiday abruptly cut the five-session winning streak of the stock market on Friday, pushing the benchmark Sensex down by 320 points despite outstanding Q4 earnings from Reliance Industries.

The markets ended near the lowest point of the day. All of Asia also ended in red, but Indian markets were more weak than the other markets.

The broader markets also ended in negative terrain, but the frontliner indices have under-performed the midcap and smallcap index. The Nifty slipped below the 4100 mark and the Sensex below the 14000 levels. The market breadth was in favour of the declines.

About 785 shares advanced, 1664 shares declined and 68 shares remained unchanged. The BSE Small Cap Index closed at 6,941.48 down 1.08 per cent. The BSE Midcap Index ended at 5,733.53 down 0.9 per cent. The BSE FMCG Index lost 1.1 per cent at 1,821.21. Tata Tea, HLL, United Spirits, Britannia, Dabur India all closed in red.

The BSE Metal Index was down 2.3 per cent to close at 9,726.49. Tata Steel, Sterlite Ind, Guj NRE Coke, Mah Seamless, Hind Zinc were among the losers. The BSE Health Care Index was down 3.9 per cent at 3,696.05. Cipla, Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Orchid Chemical, Aventis Pharma all closed lower.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was down 0.7 per cent at 9,824.09. KEC Infrastructre, Alstom Projects, HEG, Ingersoll Rand, Larsen, Dredging Corp all ended lower. The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,944.55 down 0.7 per cent. Asahi India, Tata Motors, Exide Industrie, Hero Honda were among the top losers.

The BSE IT Index closed at 4,953.94 down 0.1 per cent. Moser Baer, Mphasis, TCS, Hexaware Tech all ended weak. The BSE Bankex was down 2.3 per cent at 7,086.88. SBI, ICICI Bank, UTI Bank, Bank of India, PNB and Union Bank closed lower.

The BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 7,077.96 down 3 per cent. Reliance, ONGC, Reliance Natural, HPCL, GAIL ended in red. The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 8212.46 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 28172.44 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 3753.36 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 40138.26 crore.

Selling was largely triggered by weak Asian cues and a cautious approach by investors due to a couple of holidays after the weekend. The market will remain closed on May 1 and 2 on account of Maharashtra Day and Buddha Poornima.

The Sensex had risen by a whopping 609.18 points or 4.47 per cent between April 20 and 26. Thursday's fall was seen by analysts as a necessary downward adjustment for the market's sound health.