Mumbai, Dec. 29 -- Domestic equity benchmarks closed lower on Monday, with the Sensex and Nifty giving up early gains as muted year-end trading volumes and sustained foreign fund outflows curbed risk appetite. Investors stayed cautious ahead of the upcoming Q3 corporate earnings season. The Nifty settled below the 25,950 mark after touching an intraday high of 26,106.80, weighed down by weakness in consumer durables and IT stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined 345.91 points or 0.41% to 84,695.54. The Nifty 50 index lost 100.20 points or 0.38% to 25,942.10.

Adani Ports & SEZ (down 2.27%), Reliance Industries (down 0.8%) and ICICI Bank (down 0.5%) were major drags today.

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