Despite opening slightly higher on Tuesday, the benchmark indices of the Indian stock markets turned bearish in the afternoon. It was the ninth consecutive session that the indices ended lower, marking the longest losing streak since May 2011.

BSE's Sensex closed lower by 146 points at 35,352.61 and NSE's Nifty 50 ended 36.60 points down at 10,604.40. Around 1,360 shares rose while 1169 declined and 122 shares remained unchanged.

Nifty 50 struggled in the afternoon trade, falling below the 10,600 mark just to gain slightly at the closing minute.

The top losers for the day were Wipro, TCS, NTPC, IndusInd Bank and Infosys. The IT sector lost the most followed by pharma and energy.

The top gainers were Grasim Industries, Vedanta, BPCL, Zee Entertainment and JSW Steel.