Mumbai, Oct. 19 -- The domestic equity benchmarks ended sharply lower on Monday, with the Nifty 50 closing below the 22,900 mark. Heavy selling in heavyweight private banking stocks, elevated crude oil prices, weak global cues and profit booking after the previous two sessions' rally weighed on sentiment. Persistent foreign investor outflows in October also remained a concern. The sell-off was broad-based, with midcap and smallcap stocks declining. However, the Nifty PSU Bank index bucked the trend, gaining over 2% on the back of strong quarterly results from select public sector lenders.

The S&P BSE Sensex tanked 876.37 points or 1.17% to 73,852.90. The Nifty 50 index lost 257.20 points or 1.11% to 22,888.95. In the past four trading se...