Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS): India's key stock indices closed in the red on Friday as profit booking subdued sentiments after three consecutive sessions of rise.

Both key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- ended in the red after making intra-day record highs.

Both key indices had a gap-up opening, following which the Sensex crossed the 59,700 mark, while Nifty breached the 17,790 level.

Sector-wise, metals, realty, power, oil and gas and healthcare stocks fell the most whereas telecom and bank stocks rose the most.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed the day's trade at 59,015.89 points, lower by 125.27 points, or 0.21 per cent, from its previous close.

NSE Nifty50 ended the day's trade in the red. It fell to 17,585.15 points, lower by 44.35 points, or 0.25 per cent, from its previous close.

"Nifty snapped a three-day winning streak on September 17 and ended marginally in the red," HDFC Securities' Head of Retail Research, Deepak Jasani said.

"Nifty opened gap up and rose making fresh record highs helped by banking stocks post the bad bank sovereign guarantee announcement on Thursday evening. After making an intra day high at 11 a.m., it started to fall."

Motilal Oswal Financial Services' Head, Retail Research, Siddhartha Khemka, said: "Equity markets opened gap up and touched yet another new high, before witnessing profit booking in the latter half of the session. The indices settled in marginal red, snapping its three-day winning streak."

"The fall was more pronounced in the broader markets as it tanked over 1 per cent, thus, underperforming the benchmarks."

LKP Securities' Head of Research, S. Ranganathan, said: "While the pace of vaccinations and encouraging export data helped bulls get closer to the 60K mark amidst the FTSE & MSCI rebalancing of flows, profit taking took away all the gains ahead of the GST Council meet."

"Even as the BFSI biggies held fort today, the cut in the 'Small & Midcap' indices weakened market breadth as was evident in the 'Advance-Decline' ratio at close today."