Mumbai, Oct 9 (IANS): Indian frontline equity indices closed in the red on Wednesday as they erased gains in the last hour with Reliance, and Nestle shares pulling them lower.

At closing, Sensex closed at 81,467, down 167 points, or 0.21 per cent, and Nifty closed at 24,981, down 31 points or 0.12 per cent.

The market sentiment was positive.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2,706 shares closed in the green, 1,246 shares in the red, and 97 shares closed without any change.

At the day's end, the market cap of all companies listed on BSE was Rs 462 lakh crore, as against Rs 459 lakh crore on Tuesday.

In the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Wipro, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Infosys, and TCS were the top gainers.

ITC, Nestle, HUL, Reliance, IndusInd Bank, L&T, HDFC Bank, NTPC, M&M, Tata Steel, Asian Paints, and JSW Steel were the top losers.

Buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks.

The Nifty midcap 100 index closed at 59,102, up 566 points, or 0.97 per cent, and the Nifty smallcap 100 index closed at 18,864, up 246 points or 1.33 per cent.

Among the indices, auto, IT, PSU Bank, fin service, pharma, realty, and media contributed the most. FMCG, energy, private bank, and commodity fell the most.

LKP Securities' Senior Technical Analyst Rupak De said: "The Nifty opened higher but struggled to maintain gains, leading to a weaker close. On the hourly chart, the index closed just above the 20DMA, indicating that the very short-term trend remains positive and is likely to stay so as long as it holds above 24,940."

"However, a drop below 24,940 could trigger a correction down to 24,800/24,700. On the upside, 25,100 may act as resistance," he added.