Mumbai, May 15 (IANS): Indian equity benchmarks closed in red on Wednesday, following profit booking and sideways trading among global peers.

At closing, Sensex was down by 117 points or 0.16 per cent, at 72,987 points and the Nifty was down by 17 points or 0.08 per cent, at 22,200 points.

Midcap and smallcap stocks outperformed benchmarks. The Nifty midcap 100 index was up by 482 points or 0.96 per cent, at 50,707 points and the Nifty smallcap index was up by 94 points or 0.58 per cent, at 16,457 points.

Among the sector indices, PSU bank, pharma, metal, realty, energy, infra, PSE, healthcare, and oil & gas were settled in the green mark. On the contrary auto, IT, fin service, media and private banks remained in the red.

In the Sensex pack, 14 out of 30 stocks closed in the green mark, and 16 stocks closed in the red mark.

Bharti Airtel, Power grid, NTPC, L&T, Axis Bank, M&M and HCL tech were major gainers. Asian Paints, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, HUL, and Nestle were major laggards.

“The BankNifty index experienced sideways trading during the weekly expiry day, encountering resistance at the 48000 level. To sustain the upward momentum, the index must decisively surpass this mark, targeting levels around 48500,” according to Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities.

"On the downside, support is positioned at 47200, presenting favourable buying opportunities on dips toward this level,” he added.