Benchmark indices closed deep in the red on Wednesday, marking their fifth consecutive day of losses. This was riding on the inflation concerns and sell-off in metal stocks.

The Nifty dropped nearly 10% from its all-time high of around 20,200, reached on September 27.

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At the close, the Sensex had shed 984 points, or 1.3%, settling at 77,690, while the Nifty declined 324 points, or 1.4%,, to 23,559.

Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Pharma, and Nifty Oil and Gas also declined by over 1.5% each. Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG fell the least, down 0.5% each.

On the Nifty50, Britannia, Tata Motors, NTPC, HUL, and Asian Paints were the top gainers, while the laggards were Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, M&M, Hindalco, and Hero MotoCorp, each down by 3-4%.

Among the sectors, all ended in the red for the day. Nifty Realty shed the most, down 3.2%, followed by Nifty Metal, which declined 2.66%. Meanwhile, Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, and Nifty Media also fell by over 2% each.

The rupee depreciated by 1 paisa, reaching a historic low of 84.40 against the US dollar in early trading on Wednesday.

BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices dropped 2.6% and 3%, respectively.

Further on BSE, many stocks touched 52-week highs, including Excel Realty, Hikal, OCCL, Shyam Telecom, and Unichem Labs, while Taparia Tools, Aarti Industries, Allcargo, Asian Paints, Bajaj Electric, Bandhan Bank, Delhivery, CreditAccess Grameen, JK Lakshmi Cement, PNC Infra, and Vodafone Idea hit their 52-week lows.

Among the individual performances, shares of Sula Vineyards took a sharp tumble on the bourses after weak earnings for the quarter ended September.

NTPC shares rose despite a muted market sentiment as international brokerage Macquarie initiated coverage on NTPC with an outperform call as well, issuing a target price of Rs 475 per share.

Shares of BSE reversed gains and ended 4% after robust earnings for the quarter ended September.

As much as 2.5 crore shares, representing a 9.5% stake in PNB Housing Finance, were sold in a block deal, with Quality Investment Holdings being the likely seller.

Amid global central banks reducing interest rates, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept rates unchanged. Inflation remains a key concern, driven by rising food prices due to the extended monsoon and crop damage.