Indian benchmark indices closed lower for a second consecutive day on Wednesday as the political situation in Karnataka remained uncertain, global equities dropped and geopolitical tensions in the Korean peninsula was high.

The BSE Sensex fell 156.06 points to end at 35,387.88 while the NSE Nifty index was down 60.75 points to close at 10,741.10. During the morning trading season, the stock market had dropped the most in a month. At one point, the Sensex was trading 238.72 points lower at 35,305.22 while the NSE Nifty index was down 85.75 points at 10,716.10 points.

Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Wipro and Yes Bank were the top gainers on the two indices. The shares that dropped the most were that of Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Cipla.

During the days, the shares of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications fell as much as 15% to reach a low of Rs 10.50 after the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal on Tuesday ordered that it be placed in insolvency proceedings. This would jeopardise the company’s proposed $3.7-billion asset sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

The rupee was trading at 67.84 against the dollar, a day after the currency crashed to a 16-month low of Rs 67.51. There were speculations that state-run banks sold dollars on behalf of Reserve Bank of India to support the home currency.