Marekt Closing Bell: Bank stocks and a few auto company stocks rallied late in the day to help indices rebound from the day's lows, though they failed to turn positive amid weak global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex  finally lost 581 points, or 1 percent, to 57,277 points, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 168 points, or 0.97 percent, to 17,110 points. The 30-share BSE index fell to an intraday low of 56,439 during the day, while the Nifty fell to a low of 16,867. Before settling in the red, both indexes pared some of their losses.

Both benchmarks fell 1 percent today after the US Federal Reserve said it expects to hike interest rates in March and confirmed its intentions to cease bond purchases that month before beginning a substantial reduction in asset holdings.

Another gainer of the day was the Nifty Auto pack, which finished 0.4 percent higher. The Nifty IT index, on the other hand, fell by 3.5 percent today, followed by the Nifty Pharma and Realty indices (down nearly 2 per cent each).

The top Nifty gainer today was Axis Bank (up over 3 percent), followed by SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Cipla, Kotak Bank, Indian Oil Corp, Bajaj Auto, and Hindalco. HCL Tech, Tech M, Wipro, and TCS, on the other hand, were the top laggards, falling between 3 and 4 percent. Other laggards were Dr Reddy's Labs, Titan Company, Divis Labs, UPL, Hero MotoCorp, and Infosys.

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