At close, the Sensex was down 162.78 points or 0.29% at 55629.49, and the Nifty was down 45.80 points or 0.28% at 16568.80 amid weekly F&O expiry, aggravated by profit-booking in financial, metal, and select auto stocks, dragged benchmarks in the red on Wednesday. Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Power Grid Corporation of India, IndusInd Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) were top BSE Sensex laggards. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle India were top gainers. About 1037 shares have advanced, 2067 shares declined, and 110 shares are unchanged. the Nifty metal and bank indices fall 0.8 percent each, while buying was seen in the FMCG, pharma, and PSU Bank names. BSE midcap rose 0.26 percent and smallcap indices were down 0.18 percent.