New Delhi, 10 December (H.S.): Indian equities ended in the red on Wednesday as heavy selling in private banking and IT stocks erased early gains, pushing key indices to their lowest levels in nearly a month. The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 275 points, while the NSE Nifty slipped 82 points by the close.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 275.01 points, or 0.32%, to settle at 84,391.27, marking its weakest close since November 11. During the session, the index touched an intraday high of 85,020.34 and a low of 84,313.62. The broader NSE Nifty 50 index also fell 81.65 points, or 0.32%, to end at 25,758 amid late-hour selling pressure.

Weakness in consumer durables, private banks, and IT counters wiped out earlier gains, dragging both benchmarks down to one-month lows. Among the laggards on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors (Passenger Vehicles), BEL, and Larsen & Toubro.

Gainers included Tata Steel, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, ITC, NTPC, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, Power Grid Corporation, and Asian Paints, which provided limited support to the indices.Across Asia, markets displayed mixed trends — Shanghai Composite (China), Nikkei (Japan), and KOSPI (South Korea) closed lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index managed to end in positive territory.

In the commodity space, international benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.03% to trade at USD 61.92 per barrel. Meanwhile, the Indian Rupee weakened by nine paise to close provisionally at 89.96 against the U.S. dollar amid sustained foreign capital outflows and negative domestic market cues.

On Tuesday, the Sensex had already fallen 436.41 points, or 0.51%, to close at 84,666.28, while the Nifty declined 120.90 points, or 0.47%, to finish at 25,839.65.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar