Benchmark indices ended lower for the second consecutive session on Wednesday amid selling across sectors barring realty.

At close, the Sensex was down 318.76 points, or 0.39%, at 81,501.36, while the Nifty fell 86 points, or 0.34%, to 24,971.30.

On the Sensex, nearly 260 stocks reached their 52-week highs. These included Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Aditya Birla Real Estate, Amber Enterprises, Apar Industries, CAMS, Dixon Technologies, Five-Star Business, HCL Technologies, HDFC AMC, Indigo Paints, MCX India, Motilal Oswal, Nippon Life India Asset Management, Oberoi Realty, Page Industries, Siemens, UTI AMC, and Whirlpool, among others.

For the Nifty, the top losers included Trent, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, and Adani Ports. In contrast, the gainers were HDFC Life, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Grasim Industries, Bharti Airtel, and HDFC Bank.

Among the sectors, most indices closed with losses, with Nifty Auto and IT falling 1.27% and 1.17%, respectively.

Nifty Media was down 0.48%, Pharma by 0.38%, and FMCG by 0.37%. Bank Nifty fell by 0.20%, while the Private Bank index dropped by 0.43%. The PSU Bank index ended flat.

The BSE Midcap index also slipped by 0.10%. However, the BSE Smallcap index outperformed, closing with a gain of 0.31%.

The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE stood at nearly Rs 463 lakh crore.

Shares of Cochin Shipyard fell 5% as the government’s offer-for-sale to offload a 5% stake in the PSU company opened on Wednesday.

HDFC AMC shares jumped nearly 6% after strong Q2 FY25 results, with the market capitalisation topping Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time.

Voltas shares rose 4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded Voltas to ‘overweight’.

South Indian Bank surged over 6% after the lender reported its Q2 earnings.

India’s trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low of $20.8 billion in September from $29.7 billion a month back, as merchandise export growth turned positive for the first time in three months.

Exports were down 0.5% as against a 9.4% decline in the previous month. Imports, on the other hand, were up 1.6%, compared with the 2.8% growth seen in August.

Weak global market cues also contributed to the overall weakness. The domestic investors continued to pour money into equities directly and through mutual funds.

Foreigners were sellers in the first half of the year but became huge buyers in June after the elections.