Mumbai, Dec. 26 -- Domestic equity benchmarks slipped into the red on Tuesday, as profit booking in a holiday-shortened week and relentless FII selling sapped investor confidence. The Nifty closed below the 26,050 mark, pulled down by losses in IT and auto stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined 367.25 points or 0.43% to 85,041.45. The Nifty 50 index lost 99.80 points or 0.38% to 26,042.30.

Bajaj Finance (down 1.3%), ICICI Bank (down 0.65%) and HDFC Bank (down 0.52%) were major drags today.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.18% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.34%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,745 shares rose and 2,456 shares fell. A total of 186 shares were unc...