Indian markets ended lower on Wednesday erasing earlier gains. At the close, the benchmark 30-share index, BSE Sensex lost 146.52 or 0.40% at 36,373.44 with 24 components posting drop. Meanwhile, the broad based NSE Nifty went down by 27.60 or 0.25% at 10,980.45 with 39 components registering drop.

Biggest losers in the 30-share index were Tata Steel (5.22%), Axis Bank (2.57%), Hindustan Unilever (2.37%), Tata Motors (2.19%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (2.05%).

On the other hand, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (2.69%), Asian Paints (0.95%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (0.91%), Hero Motocorp (0.63%), Bajaj Auto (0.32%), and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (0.14%) were the biggest gainers in the Sensex.

Market breadth was negative with 802 advances against 1,542 declines.

Bharti Airtel topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 2,671.36 million. It was followed by Edelweiss Financial Services (Rs. 1,348.54 million), Ashok Leyland (Rs. 1,141.95 million) and Tata Steel (Rs. 610.39 million).

The volume chart was led by Reliance Communications with trades of over 10.86 million shares. It was followed by Ashok Leyland (10.33 million), Bharti Airtel (7.93 million) and Jaiprakash Associates (6.70 million).