IT stocks, led by Infosys, declined. The BSE IT index ended 2.73% down and the Teck index, which has several IT stocks in its fold, declined 2.62%. On NSE, the Nifty IT index declined 2.51%.

Capital goods stocks, which saw some strong buying earlier this week, declined on profit taking and disappointing industrial output data. Automobile stocks too were mostly weak. Realty stocks did well. Shares of state-run oil marketing companies moved up. FMCG, bank and power stocks turned in a mixed performance. Midcap and smallcap stocks were mostly subdued.

Infosys declined 3.7%. The company's consolidated net profit in the fourth quarter, at Rs 3603 crore was marginally higher than the net profit it had posted in the year-ago quarter, but sequentially, was down 2.8% from a net profit of Rs 3708 crore it had posted in the September December 2016 quarter. For the first time ever, the company raked in a revenue of over $10 billion in a full financial year.

In dollar terms, the company has forecast a revenue growth of 6.1-8.1% for the current fiscal, lower than what analysts and markets had expected. Given the tough business conditions, Infosys expects its margins to be lower and has given a guidance that EBIT margin to be at 23% - 25% for financial year 2017-18. Revenue is expected to grow 6.5% - 8.5% in constant currency and 2.5% - 4.5% in rupee terms.

Infosys announced that it would pay around Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders via share buybacks or dividends, and this is one big takeaway from Infosys' results announcement today. The company, which has announced a dividend of Rs 14.75 per share, expects to pay out close to 70% of its free cash flows.

Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies ended lower by about 2.4%. Tech Mahindra declined by about 2% and KPIT ended 1.5% down. Tata Elxsi and Wipro also ended notably lower, while Oracle Financial Services edged up margainally.

Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Adani Ports lost 2% - 3%. Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC and ITC declined by 0.7% - 1.3%.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained nearly 1.5%. Power Grid Corporation, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Coal India, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and HDFC posted modest gains.

Indian Oil Corporation (3.2%), BPCL (1.7%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ( ) ended on a high note. These companies will review fuel prices on a daily basis from May 2017, in line with markets across the globe.

Indiabulls Housing Finance gained 2.2%. Bank of Baroda ended 1.85% up.

Hindalco declined more than 5%. Bharti Infratel ended 3.2% down, Tata Motors DVR declined by about 2.7% and Grasim Industries ended nearly 2% down. Ambuja Cements, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Eicher Motors also ended notably lower.

Omkar Speciality Chemicals, Orient Green Power and IOL Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals rallied on fairly strong volumes on stock specific news.

The market breadth was even. Out of 3048 stocks traded on BSE, 1459 stocks advanced. 1441 stocks declined and 148 stocks ended flat.

In economic news, data released by the government after trading hours on Wednesday showed India's industrial production to have declined unexpectedly in February on weak manufacturing activity, falling 1.2% from prior year. In January, production advanced by revised 3.3%.

Meanwhile, consumer price inflation rose 3.81% year-on-year in March 2017, faster than February's 3.65% increase. Prices of food and beverages climbed 2.54%, while that of clothing and footwear by 4.6%. Fuel & light were up 5.56%, while housing cost advanced 4.96%.