The Indian equity benchmarks moved lower on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts on weak global markets. The Sensex fell as much as 899 points and Nifty 50 index fell below its important psychological level of 17,500.
Most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 1.52 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.82 per cent, Taiwan Weighted declined 1.68 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI fell 1.49 per cent.
As of 9:34 am, the Sensex was down 528 points at 59,009 and Nifty 50 index dropped 153 points to 17,606.
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A choppy day of trading ended Wednesday with a broad slide for stocks as Wall Street closed the books on a rocky August that started off strong, but wound up leaving the market deeper in the red for the year.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent, extending its losing streak to a fourth day. The benchmark index ended the month with a 4.2. per cent loss after surging 9.1 per cent in July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite slid 0.6 per cent. The major stock indexes are on pace for weekly losses.
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Technology stocks and big retailers were among the heaviest weights on the market. Only communications stocks eked out a slight gain. Smaller company stocks also fell, pulling the Russell 2000 index 0.6 per cent lower.
Back home, six of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Oil & Gas index's over 1 per cent decline. Nifty Metal, Pharma, FMCG and Financial Services indexes were also trading lower.
On the other hand, Auto, banking, media, PSU bank and realty indices were trading higher.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.47 per cent.
Hindalco was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 2.6 per cent to Rs 428. ONGC, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, SBI Life, Reliance Industries, UPL, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and HCL Technologies also fell between 1-2.5 per cent.
On the flipside, Bajaj FInserv, Tata Consumer Products, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Eicher Motors, Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India and Titan were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,104 shares were advancing while 1,053 were declining on the BSE.
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