Indices back in red after one-day hiatus, succumbs to a last-hour sell-off

Equity benchmarks resumed their decline on Wednesday after a day's gap, succumbing to a last-hour sell-off triggered by losses mainly in market heavyweights Reliance, Infosys and HDFC.

After trading in the green for most part of the session, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 323.34 points or 0.55 per cent lower at 58,340.99 — marking its fifth decline in the last six days.

Likewise, the NSE Nifty fell 88.30 points or 0.5 per cent to end at 17,415.05. On the Sensex chart, Maruti, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Reliance Industries, L&T, UltraTech Cement and HDFC were the major losers, dropping as much as 2.62 per cent.

On the other hand, Kotak Bank, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid and HCL Tech were among the gainers, climbing up to 1.45 per cent.