Mumbai, Oct 16 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices closed in the red on Wednesday as auto, IT, and PSU banks remained under pressure.

The BSE Sensex closed at 81,501.36, down 318.76 points or 0.39 per cent.

NSE Nifty closed at 24,971.30, down 86.05 points or 0.34 per cent. The Nifty Midcap 100 index settled at 59,451.85, down 141.40 points or 0.24 per cent. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed with a gain at 19,304.90, up 2.85 points or 0.01 per cent. Nifty Bank closed at 51,801.05 after slipping 104.95 points or 0.20 per cent.

The rally was driven by Nifty's Fin service, realty, energy, infra, and oil and gas sectors. Auto, IT, PSU Bank, pharma, FMCG, and metal were major laggards.

However, the market trend remained positive. On BSE, 2,030 shares closed in green and 1,930 shares in red, while 108 shares closed without any change.

In the Sensex pack, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, and SBI were among the top gainers. M&M, Infosys, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Titan, Kotak Mahindra and ITC were the top losers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) increased their selling on Tuesday and sold equities worth Rs 1,748.71 crore. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also increased their buying and they bought equities worth Rs 1,654.96 crore on the same day.

According to market experts, the national market traded range bound with a negative bias due to the fear of a downgrade in FY25 earnings, which could impact the sustainability of premium valuation. The participants are expecting only a slow pace in earnings expansion in Q2FY25 due to insipid demand and volatility in input prices, they added.

Meanwhile, gold prices stayed elevated with gains of Rs 350 in MCX, while Comex gold traded above $2,675, up 0.55 per cent. Traders continue to position themselves on expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain its path of interest rate cuts.