Sensex down at 57,232, Nifty ends at 17,063

BSE Sensex closed at 57,232.06, down by 0.12 per cent or 68.62 points and Nifty 50 ended 0.17 per cent or 28.95 points at 17,063.25.

The share market on Wednesday ended lower for a sixth straight session on Wednesday, with automobile and financial stocks falling the most ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts.

The BSE Sensex closed at 57,232.06, down by 0.12 per cent or 68.62 points and Nifty 50 ended 0.17 per cent or 28.95 points at 17,063.25.

Both the indexes spent most of the day in positive territory, rising up to 0.8 per cent each, as investors shook off jitters around a recent escalation in the Russia-Ukraine crisis, as per a Reuters report.

"A reason in the downtick in equities at close is because we are nearing monthly expiry of derivatives and since foreign fund outflows continue," said Anita Gandhi, a whole-time director at Arihant Capital Markets, Reuters reported.

For the month so far, the Nifty and Sensex have fallen more than 1 per cent, dragged by geopolitical tensions, inflation concerns, foreign fund outflows and expected rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Foreign investors have sold a net $7.02 billion worth of Indian equities so far this year, according to Refinitiv data.

"We saw negative deployments across other sectors with IT witnessing the highest ever outflows following a global sell-off," analysts at BofA Securities wrote in a note.