At close, the Sensex was down 164.11 points or 0.31% at 52318.60, and the Nifty was down 41.50 points or 0.26% at 15680 as new Delta and Delta plus variants of novel coronavirus push Covid-19 cases higher across the globe. Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCS were among the top index draggers. While Dr. Reddy’s Lab, Bajaj-Auto, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, Titan Company, SBI were Sensex gainers. About 1632 shares have advanced, 1516 shares declined, and 118 shares are unchanged. The Nifty Auto index and Nifty Pharma ended 0.8 percent higher, PSU Bank ended in the green, WhileNifty Bank fell 0.25 percent. Selling was seen in the energy, bank, metal, infra, and IT names. The BSE MidCap index dipped 0.19 percent. However, the BSE SmallCap index added 0.32 percent.