Mumbai, Sept. 25 -- The domestic benchmark indices fell for the fifth straight session today. Weak sentiment was driven by foreign fund selling and worries over changes to U.S. H-1B visa rules. The Nifty closed below 24,900. Barring the Nifty Metal index, all sectoral indices on the NSE ended lower. Realty, IT, and auto stocks saw the sharpest losses.

The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 555.95 points or 0.68% to 81,159.68. The Nifty 50 index lost 166.05 points or 0.66% to 24,890.85. In five sessions, the Sensex has slumped 2.23% and the Nifty has tumbled 2.09%.

TCS (down 2.50%), Bajaj Finance (down 1.66%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.82%) were major Nifty drags today.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-C...