Stock market today: Benchmark equity indices closed in red territory on Wednesday, May 29 dragged by financial and IT stocks, continuing to fall for the fourth day ahead of the Lok Sabha polls' results scheduled later next week.

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The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 74,502.9, down 667.55 points or 0.89 per cent while NSE Nifty settled 183.45 points or 0.8 per cent lower to settle at 22,704.7.

Among the Nifty companies, 37 stocks were declining while 13 stocks were advancing. HDFC Life, SBI Life, Tech Mahindra Tata Consumer Products, and Bajaj Finserv were the top decliners in the Nifty 50 universe while Hindalco, Divi's, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, and Cipla led the gains.

"Weak global cues prompted investors to take profits ahead of the US core PCE data, a key gauge of inflation that is anticipated to rise," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

"Continued soaring of global inflation, like latest trend in Japan and Australia is diminishing investor expectation of a US Fed rate cut in the near term. Broad based weakness is noticed across the sectors with heavy underperformance from financials and IT," he added.

The domestically focussed Nifty SmallCap closed flat, up 0.06 per cent, while Nifty MidCap100 settled 0.32 per cent lower, respectively.

The high-beta Nifty Bank index, whose 12 constituents include SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank finished 1.3 per cent or points lower at 48,501.35.

The last phase of polling is scheduled for June 1. The results of the ongoing general elections will be declared on June 4.

Global Market

European shares fell on Wednesday as rising bond yields globally spurred concerns of interest rates staying elevated for longer, even as investors awaited more economic data to firm up bets on rate cuts. Last seen, the pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.6 per cent.

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