Mumbai, Jul 24 (IANS): Indian equity indices closed in the red on Wednesday following profit booking in largecap stocks.

At closing, Sensex was down 280 points or 0.35 per cent, at 80,148 and Nifty was down 65 points or 0.27 per cent, at 24,413.

During the session, Markets witnessed high volatility. Sensex touched a high of 80,519 and a low of 79,750, while Nifty traded in the range of 24,504 to 24,307.

There was an upward trend in midcap and smallcap stocks as compared to largecap stocks.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 56,872, up 587 points or 1.04 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 18,723, up 323 points or 1.76 per cent. Among sectors, Nifty IT, Nifty pharma and Nifty media ended in green while Nifty pvt bank, Nifty FMCG and Nifty fin service ended on the lower side.

In Nifty stocks, HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, and BPCL were the top gainers while Bajaj Finserv, Britannia, and Heromotocorp were the prime laggards.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said: "Index has a support around 24,300-24,250 zone which is also close to its 20 Day EMA levels. Coming to the OI Data, on the call side, the highest OI was observed at 24,600 followed by 24,700 strike prices while on the put side, the highest OI is at 24,300 strike price."

"On the other hand, Bank nifty has support at 51,000-50,800 while resistance is placed at 51,900 and 52,100 levels," he added.