Mumbai, Oct 25 (IANS): The Indian stock market closed with a big decline on Friday, as heavy selling was seen in all sectors, except pharma and FMCG.

Sensex fell more than 800 points in the afternoon trade. However, by the end of trading, the market recovered a bit and closed down by 662 points. The BSE Sensex closed at 79,402.29 after falling 662.87 points or 0.83 per cent. At the same time, NSE's Nifty fell 218.60 points or 0.9 per cent to 24,180.80. Nifty Bank closed at 50,787.45 after falling 743.70 points or 1.44 per cent. Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 55,277.95 after falling 1,071.80 points or 1.90 per cent. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 17,847.90 after falling 401.25 points or 2.20 per cent.

IndusInd Bank, M&M, L&T, NTPC, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, and Tata Motors were the top losers in the Sensex pack, while ITC, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top gainers.

IndusInd Bank, BPCL, Shriram Finance, Coal India, M&M and L&T were the top losers in the Nifty pack. Apart from this, ITC, Axis Bank, BEL, Britannia, and Hindustan Unilever Ltd were on the list of top gainers.

The market trend remained negative. On BSE, 3,092 stocks closed in the red mark and 850 in the green mark. There was no change in 79 shares.

According to market experts, the domestic market faced a continuous fall due to persistent FII selling. All sectors, except FMCG, were impacted, with small and midcap stocks suffering the most. The sustained and unprecedented selling by the FIIs has touched Rs 98,085 crore this month (up to October 24). However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have been strong buyers, absorbing the selling and mitigating the fall. Due to the regressive selling, the domestic market is expected to reach the oversold territory, they said.