In the volatile expiry session on March 28, the Indian benchmark indices pared some of the previous session’s gains, with the Nifty 50 ending below 24,000 mark amid broad-based selling, led by financial, IT, and auto stocks.

Unresolved geopolitical tensions, elevated crude oil prices and persistent foreign fund outflows further weighed on investor sentiment.

At close, the Sensex was down 416.72 points or 0.54 percent at 76,886.91, and the Nifty was down 97 points or 0.40 percent at 23,995.70.

Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Shriram Finance, and InterGlobe Aviation were among the top laggards on the Nifty 50. In contrast, gains were led by ONGC, Coal India, Nestle, Adani Enterprises, and Reliance Industries.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap index rising 0.3% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.4%.

Among sectors, PSU Bank index declined 2%, while the Private Bank and Auto indices fell 1% each. The IT index dropped 0.7% and Realty index down 0.4%. On the upside, the Energy index gained 1.2%, the Oil & Gas index rose 1.5%, and the Metal index advanced 0.5%.

Nearly 150 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including NLC India, Vardhman Textiles, Kirloskar Oil, Adani Power, Welspun Corp, Glenmark Pharma, Aarti Industries, Tata Power, Power Finance, SAIL, NMDC, Honasa Consumer, Ather Energy, JSW Energy, Adani Energy, HFCL, Hindalco Industries, Lloyds Metals, Schneider Infra., among others. 


Among individual stocks, Adani Total Gas shares gained 2.7% on robust Q4 results, One Mobikwik Systems shares surged nearly 2% after 7.65% equity change hands in block trades, Coal India shares rose 3% on better Q4 earnings.