Mumbai, Oct 11 (IANS): India frontline equity indices closed lower on Friday as finance shares and TCS weighed on them.

At closing, Sensex was down 230 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 81,381 and Nifty was down 34 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 24,964.

The selling was driven by banking stocks. Nifty Bank was down 358 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 51,172.

Buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks.

Nifty midcap 100 index was up 276 points or 0.47 per cent at 59,212 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was up 108 points or 0.58 per cent at 19,008.

Among the indices, IT, pharma, metal, media, energy, infra, commodities and consumption were major gainers. Auto, fin services, realty, pvt bank and services were major losers.

In the Sensex pack, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, HUL, Infosys, Titan Company, Wipro, Sun Pharma, L&T, SBI, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Steel were among the top gainers. NTPC, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, ITC, HDFC Bank, and TCS were the top losers.

According to the market experts, the market traded sideways due to a lack of fresh triggers for decisive momentum. The uptick in the US 10-year yield due to the unexpected rise in US core inflation and caution ahead of result season added layers of sentiment in the market, they said.

'The ongoing geopolitical challenges influenced FIIs to shift their focus towards the affordable markets, which is impacting the domestic market liquidity, they added.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling on October 10 as they sold equities worth Rs 4,926 crore, on the other hand, domestic institutional investors also extended their buying as they bought equities worth Rs 3,878 crore on the same day. Equity markets opened on a negative note.

At 9.24 a.m., Sensex was down 142 points or 0.17 per cent at 81, 469 and Nifty was down 36 points or 0.12 per cent at 24,960.