Mumbai, Nov 20 (IANS): Losing its three days' winning streak, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 256 points or 1.22 percent lower Wednesday.

Selling pressure was seen in banking, auto, capital goods, healthcare and oil and gas sectors, while only the metal sector observed some positive trading.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,857.01 points, closed at 20,635.13 points, down 255.69 points or 1.22 percent from its previous day close at 20,890.82 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,895.30 points and a low of 20,579.94 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE bankex tanked 224.93 points, auto index dropped 150.57 points, capital goods index shed 108.86 points, healthcare index slipped by 102.98 points and oil and gas index went down by 99 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 80.45 points or 1.30 percent down at 6,122.90 points.

Major Sensex gainers were: Coal India, up 1.83 percent at Rs.272.60; SSTL, up 0.95 percent at Rs.186.65 and Tata Power, up 0.76 percent at Rs.79.45.

The main losers were: ICICI Bank, down 2.84 percent at Rs.1051.85; Hindalco Industries, down 2.50 percent at Rs.120.90; Bharti Airtel, down 2.44 percent at Rs.343.15 and Hero MotoCorp, down 2.07 percent at Rs.2,016.30.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.33 percent down; while China's Shanghai Composite Index was up by 0.62 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.18 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.47 percent down, Germany's DAX Index was down by 0.24 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was down by 0.38 percent.