Heavy foreign fund outflows along with bearish global cues and profit booking plunged India's key equity indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- on Thursday.
Accordingly, both the key indices ended the day's trade nearly 2 per cent lower from their previous closing mark, respectively.
In the process, the Sensex plunged over a 1,000 points. It touched an intra-day low of 59,777.58 points.
Besides, Nifty fell the most in the last 6 months.
The FIIs sold Rs 3,818.51 crore on BSE, NSE & MSEI in the capital market segment.
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Globally, Asian stocks fell on Thursday amid concerns that the recovery from the pandemic will be slow as elevated inflation forces tighter monetary policy.
However, European stocks were steady as investors weighed earnings reports to assess the strength of the economic recovery.
In terms of sectors, capital goods was the only sector that ended barely in the positive territory.
Among losers -- Realty, Power, Oil & Gas, Metals, Banks, Telecom and Consumer Durables lost the most.
Consequently, the 30-scrip sensitive index closed at 59,984.70 points, down 1,158.63 points or 1.89 per cent.
The Sensex opened at 61,081 points from its previous close of 61,143.33 points.
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Besides, the NSE Nifty50 ended the day's trade at 17,857.25 points, lower by 353.70 points or 1.94 per cent.
It opened at 18,187.65 points from its previous close of 18,210.95 points.
"Indian markets were the worst performers in the Asian region. Morgan Stanley has downgraded Indian markets to equal weight," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
"FPI unwinding has led to this fall and the adverse advance-decline ratio. The weakness in Nifty could continue but the pace of fall could now reduce."
According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services: "Relentless selling by FIIs over last two weeks has led to weakness in the market. They have sold over Rs 10,000 crore in Indian equities in past five sessions."
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"Further mixed earnings season along with premium valuations also exerted pressure in the market as there is little room for disappointment. Global cues continue to be weak on account of high inflation hurting global growth, rising covid cases in some countries, and mixed earnings season."
In addition, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said: "Bears continued to dominate domestic indices tracking cues from weak Asian and European markets ahead of a policy update from the European Central Bank."
"Globally, investors are on the edge awaiting the US GDP data releasing later in the day along with the outcome of the Fed meeting scheduled for next week. Domestic markets witnessed broad-based selling dragged by banking, metal and realty stocks."
