Mumbai, Oct. 21 -- Benchmark stock indices erased early gains to close lower on Wednesday, marking their second straight day of losses, dragged by selling in power, banking and financial shares amid elevated crude oil prices and firm US bond yields.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 143.21 points, or 0.19 per cent, to close at 73,709.69, with 19 constituents down, 10 higher and one unchanged. The index opened in the green and surged 829.29 points, or 1.12 per cent, to hit an intraday high of 74,682.19 before noon.

Sharp gains triggered profit-taking by investors, dragging the barometer down more than 1,450 points to a day's low of 73,229.45. Some buying in the pre-close session helped Sensex trim losses.

The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 77.60 points, or 0.34 per cent, to end at 22,811.35. It had climbed to a high of 23,120.90 in early trade before sliding to an intraday low of 22,702.85.

Among the Sensex constituents, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Trent, Axis Bank, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki India, IndiGo, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Titan and State Bank of India were the major laggards.

HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, ITC, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharmaceuticals were among the gainers.

Reliance Industries' shares ended marginally higher on the BSE after rising as much as 2.64 per cent intraday, as its digital and telecom arm Jio Platforms Ltd's Rs 30,213-crore initial public offering (IPO) attracted overwhelming interest from qualified institutional buyers. The public issue was subscribed 3.01 times by 5 p.m., with investors bidding for 59.44 crore shares against 19.75 crore shares on offer, according to exchange data.

The BSE SmallCap Select Index dropped 2.29 per cent, and the SmallCap Select Index was down 1.46 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, Capital Goods tanked the most by 2.9 per cent, followed by Industrials (2.44 per cent), Power (2.23 per cent), MidSmall Private Banks (2.02 per cent), Consumer Discretionary (1.92 per cent), MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt (1.88 per cent), Utilities (1.76 per cent), and Services (1.61 per cent).

On the other side, Focussed IT rose 2.63 per cent, and IT gained 2.46 per cent.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.