Benchmark Sensex declined by 318 points while Nifty slipped below 25,000 level on Wednesday due to selling in IT and auto shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak trends in global markets.

Falling for the second day, the BSE Sensex declined by 318.76 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 81,501.36. During the day, it slumped 461.86 points or 0.56 per cent to 81,358.26.

The NSE Nifty declined by 86.05 points or 0.34 per cent to close at 24,971.30.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, ITC and Titan were the major laggards.

HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints and State Bank of India were the gainers.

"The market traded range bound with a negative bias due to the fear of a downgrade in FY25 earnings, which could impact the sustainability of premium valuation," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

The participants are expecting only a slow pace in earnings expansion in the second quarter due to insipid demand and volatility in input prices, Nair said addng that the rate of recovery in Q2 compared to Q1 is below expectation.

"Nifty recorded a two-day losing streak on Wednesday tracking sell-off across the globe with Nifty closing below 25,000. Markets were mostly lower in Asia and Europe on Wednesday after US stocks pulled back from their records, dented by selling of technology and energy sector shares," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

The BSE midcap gauge dipped 0.10 per cent while smallcap index climbed 0.31 per cent.

Among the indices, IT tanked 1.17 per cent, auto (0.97 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.69 per cent), teck (0.76 per cent) and services (0.51 per cent).

Telecommunication jumped 0.91 per cent, realty climbed 0.64 per cent, energy (0.25 per cent), oil & gas (0.20 per cent) and commodities (0.10 per cent).

"Markets were range-bound with a negative bias as investors mostly resorted to selective profit-taking, particularly in banking, IT and auto stocks. While weak global market cues also contributed to the overall weakness, persistent offloading of domestic shares by foreign investors this month have made local traders jittery and are mostly adopting a cautious approach," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,748.71 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower, while Shanghai closed higher.

European markets were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended lower on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.08 per cent to USD 74.32 a barrel.

On Tuesday, the BSE benchmark Sensex declined 152.93 points or 0.19 per cent to settle at 81,820.12. The Nifty settled lower by 70.60 points or 0.28 per cent to 25,057.35.

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