Indian equity indices traded in deep red on Wednesday due to large selling in the heavyweights like Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank, among others.

Sensex was down 530 points or 0.67 per cent at 78,158 and Nifty was down 180 points or 0.76 per cent at 23,702 during the intra-day trading.

In the trading session, Sensex made an intra-day low of 77,959.

The market trend also remained negative. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 289 stocks were in the green and 2,163 stocks were in the red.

Due to heavy selling, the market capitalisation of all listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) declined by over Rs 6 lakh crore to Rs 430 lakh crore. On Tuesday, it was Rs 436 lakh crore.

The biggest impact of the decline is being seen on small and medium stocks. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was down 1,158 points or 2.10 per cent at 54,099 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was down 426 points or 2.37 per cent at 17,566.

India VIX, an index showing volatility in the market, was up 4.73 per cent at 15.28.

Almost all NSE indices were trading in the red. Auto, IT, PSU banks, metal, realty, infra and PSE were major laggards.

Twenty-seven out of 30 Sensex stocks were in the red.

Tata Steel, M&M, JSW Steel, TCS, Nestle, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv were the top losers. Only NTPC, Tata Motors and Titan were trading in the green.

Mandar Bhojane, research analyst at Choice Broking said that a bearish engulfing pattern formed on the daily chart, highlighting the increased influence of bearish sentiment.

“The immediate support level is situated at 23,650; if this level is breached, the index may slip further to 23,400. On the upside, resistance remains robust, with selling pressure expected around the 24,200-mark,” he mentioned.