Share Market Today: Sensex Drops 319 Points; Nifty Settles Below 25,000. Auto, IT Down

Share Market Today: The two key equity benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday closed in the red due to selling in IT and auto shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak trends in global markets. The BSE Sensex shed 319 points to close at 81,501. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 settled at 24,971, dropping 86 points.Stock updateOn the 30-share Sensex platform, M&M, Infosys, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Titan were among the losers. On the flip side, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Asian Paints, SBI were the only gainers.Among the broader markets, the BSE Midcap closed flat and Smallcap index jumped 0.3 per cent.Sectoral updateThe Auto and IT sectors were the top laggards among sectoral indices, closing down by over 1 per cent each. Other sectors, including Media, Metal, Pharma, FMCG, Realty, Private Banks, Consumer Durables, and Healthcare, also ended in the red on Wednesday. However, indices for Financial Services, Realty, and OMCs managed to post modest gains of up to 0.55 per cent.In the previous session on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex settled at 81,820.12, slipping more than 150 points, while the NSE Nifty50 closed the day at 25,057.35, dropping almost 71 points."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.Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,748.71 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.Global updateIn Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower, while Shanghai ended in the positive territory. 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 $74.32 a barrel.