Mumbai, June 2 -- Equity benchmarks ended marginally lower today as global trade jitters resurfaced after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at hiking tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50%, effective June 4. The Nifty closed below the 24,750 mark. Losses in metal and IT stocks outweighed the optimism sparked by upbeat domestic economic data.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined 77.26 points or 0.09% to 81,373.75. The Nifty 50 index fell 34.10 points or 0.14% to 24,716.60.

HDFC Bank (down 0.60%), Bajaj Finance (down 0.51%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.45%) were major drags.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.58% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.36%.

The market breadth was p...