The benchmark indices continued their losing streak on Wednesday for the fourth consecutive session amid selling seen in the oil & gas, IT, realty, and banking names.

The Nifty 50 opened at 22,762.75, and closed 183 points, or 0.80 per cent, down at 22,704.70. The index hit an intraday low of 22,685.45.

Sensex opened at 74,826.94, and closed with a loss of 668 points, or 0.89 per cent, at 74,502.90. It fell as much as 716 points in the intraday session to 74,454.55.

In terms of sectors, the Banking and financial stocks suffered significantly with the Nifty Bank index falling 1.30 per cent while the Financial Services index declined 1.65 per cent.

Nifty Private Bank was down 1.36 per cent, Oil & Gas by 1.01 per cent, IT by 1 per cent, Realty by 0.90 per cent, FMCG by 0.54 per cent and PSU Bank by 0.49 per cent.

Mid and smallcap indices outperformed the benchmarks with the BSE Midcap index dropping 0.38 per cent, while the Smallcap index rose 0.23 per cent. The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dropped to nearly Rs 415 lakh crore against nearly Rs 417 lakh crore in the previous session.

On Nifty 50, the shares of HDFC Life Insurance Company (2.90 per cent), SBI Life Insurance Company (2.53 per cent) and Tech Mahindra (2.27 per cent) closed as the top losers. On the gaining side were the shares of Hindalco (3.52 per cent), Divi’s Labs (1.72 per cent) and Power Grid (1.29 per cent).

Adani Group, led by Gautam Adani, boosted stakes in Adani Enterprises and Adani Green Energy in May before a planned fundraising.

Promoter entities purchased 72.70 lakh shares of Adani Enterprises, valued at Rs 2,162 crore, and 1.39 crore shares of Adani Green Energy, valued at Rs 2,507 crore, in multiple transactions between May 10 and May 23, as per NSE data.

Shares of several shipping companies jumped up to 10 per cent on high volumes with triggers including order wins and March quarter results. Mazagon led the pack as its robust fourth-quarter results prompted investors to buy.

The much-talked Suzlon Energy Limited shared trading over 4 per cent higher at Rs 46 apiece in the afternoon buoyed by a 551.25-megawatt wind power project for the Aditya Birla Group in Gujarat and Rajasthan and Nuvama initiating coverage with a ‘buy’ call on the counter citing positive growth prospects.

Experts believed that the market is reeling in the clutches of bears ahead of the Lok Sabha election outcome. The volatility will remain high due to election-related jitters, a lack of fresh cues, weak global signals, and concerns over geopolitical tensions keep market sentiment fragile.