The Indian rupee strengthened for the seventh consecutive session on Wednesday morning, trading at 70.89 against the dollar at 4.42 pm. The rise in the Indian currency could be attributed to falling international crude oil prices, Mint reported.

Meanwhile, the benchmark indices erased their early gains to decline for the third straight session due to selling in metal, power and banking stocks. The BSE Sensex closed at 34,981.02 points, down by more than 218 points or 0.62%, while the NSE Nifty 50 closed 73.30 points lower, at 10,526.75.

The stocks of Adani Ports, HDFC and Larsen and Toubro gained the most on both the indices, while those of Mahindra & Mahindra declined the most. The other top gainers on the Sensex were Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Tata Consultancy Services, while Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Infosys were the other top gainers on the Nifty.

The other stocks that lost the most on the Sensex were Tata Steel, Wipro, Axis Bank and Coal India, while the stocks of Grasim, Hindalco Industries, Bajaj Finance and Indian Oil Corporation were the biggest losers on the Nifty.