Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS): Lower earnings guidance from IT majors, along with heightened chances of a US rate hike and negative global crude oil prices dragged the Indian equity markets to close in the red on Monday.

Besides, broadly negative global markets, hike in petroleum product prices and a massive outflow of foreign funds during the entire last week eroded investors' confidence. 

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed lower by 63 points or 0.73 per cent to 8,520.40 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 27,776.14 points, provisionally closed at 27,529.97 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- down by 143.63 points or 0.52 per cent from the previous close at 27,673.60 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,803.21 points and a low of 27,488.30 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears -- with 1,509 declines and 1,296 advances.

On October 14, both the key Indian indices had managed to pare some of their losses to close on a flat-to-positive note on the back of positive inflation macro-data points and value buying.

The barometer index had risen slightly by 30.49 points or 0.11 per cent to 27,673.60 points, while the NSE Nifty inched up by 10.05 points or 0.12 per cent to 8,583.40 points.