MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Thursday, falling for the second day running, amid weak trends in global markets and fresh foreign fund outflows.
Disappointing earnings from IT services company Wipro also dragged the benchmarks lower.
The 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 490.44 points to 65,386.58. The Nifty fell 137.5 points to 19,533.60.
Among the Sensex firms, Wipro fell by nearly 4 per cent after the IT services company reported an almost flat consolidated net profit at Rs 2,667.3 crore for the September quarter, trailing street expectations, and projected up to 3.5 per cent fall in revenue in the current quarter on weak global economic outlook and uncertain business environment.
Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the other major laggards.
IndusInd Bank and ITC were the gainers. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended lower on Wednesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.52 per cent to USD 91.02 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,831.84 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
"Investors face various pressing concerns, including divestment by foreign institutional investors, the Israel-Palestine conflict, lacklustre corporate performance, rising US treasury yields, and an upcoming speech by Jerome Powell (Fed Chair)," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
The BSE benchmark had plunged 551.07 points or 0.83 per cent to settle at 65,877.02 on Wednesday.
The Nifty declined 140.40 points or 0.71 per cent to 19,671.10.