Mumbai, March 13 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 82 points lower Thursday.

Heavy selling pressure was seen in information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECk), healthcare, metal and consumer durables stocks.

However, healthy buying support was observed in bank, oil and gas, automobile, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and capital goods sectors.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,736.61 points, closed at 21,774.61 points, down 81.61 points or 0.37 percent from the previous day's close at 21,856.22 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 21,991.36 points and a low of 21,720.13 points during the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade at 23.80 points or 0.37 percent down at 6,493.10 points.

The S&P BSE IT index dropped by a whopping 379.61 points, followed by TECk index, down 180.90 points. The healthcare index ended lower by 105.14 points, while metal index declined by 56.91 points and consumer durables index was down 16.18 points.

However, the S&P BSE bank index gained 126.32 points, and oil and gas index added 131.26 points, while automobile index went up by 68.65 points, FMCG index was higher by 25.72 points and capital goods index was up 24.30 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Mahindra and Mahindra, up 2.40 percent at Rs.1,014.80; ONGC, up 2.37 percent at Rs.324.45; HDFC Bank, up 2.30 percent at Rs.42.25; Coal India, up 2.02 percent at Rs.265; and Hero MotoCorp, up 1.82 percent at Rs.2,100.60.

The losers were: Infosys, down 8.54 percent at Rs.3,357.50; Sun Pharma, down 5.03 percent at Rs.573.60; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.54 percent at Rs.172.90; Axis Bank, down 1.23 percent at Rs.1,380.80; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.16 percent at Rs.2,153.45.

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