The stock markets on Thursday ended on a negative note for both the benchmark indices as the Sensex lost 70.85 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 35,574.55 and the Nifty by 20.15 points or 0.19 per cent and stood at 10,749.75.

According to V K Sharma, Head Private Client Group & Capital Market Strategy at HDFC Securities, the Nifty did well to close at 10,750, just 20 points down on a day when the Asian markets were mired in red and it was supported by FMCG and Banking stocks but Metals, Realty were laggards.

Talking about the Nifty and how it was on a decline today, Rajeev Srivastava, Head-Retail Broking, Reliance Securities said that the crossover of key resistance of 10,850 will strengthen the broader markets and midcaps will outperform.

At the BSE, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, GATI Ltd and Firstsource Solutions Ltd were the top gainers while Hathway, Den and HCC were the major losers, at the end of the trading session.

At the NSE, the top gainers were Yes Bank, UltraTech Cement Ltd and ITC whereas the top losers were Titan, Infosys and Vedanta.

The S&P BSE Midcap index and Small index went down by 109.52 or 0.71 per cent and 64.10 points or 0.40 per cent, respectively. The Midcap Index stood at 15,305.74 and Smallcap Index closed at 15,986.49, at the time of filing the report.

The Asian market ended mixed today as Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Nikkei took the downturn by 0.21 per cent, 0.91 per cent and 0.78 per cent, respectively while DAX, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 gained 1.50 per cent, 0.64 per cent and 1.25 per cent, respectively.

The commodities sector was low since morning as gold prices had a downcast of Rs 16 or 0.05 per cent to close at Rs 30,598 per 10 grams and Brent Crude lowered by Rs 8 or 0.16 per cent and stood at Rs 5118 per bbl, at the market closing.

Meanwhile, the banking sector was on a gaining spree as well as losing terms as Axis Bank and State Bank of India lost 3.40 points or 0.66 per cent and 0.90 points or 0.35 per cent, respectively. However, HDFC Bank gained 20.35 points or 0.97 per cent at the closing.