Mumbai, July 20 -- Indian benchmark indices opened sharply lower on Monday, weighed down by escalating tensions between the US and Iran that pushed Brent crude prices above USD 90 a barrel.

Both Sensex and Nifty began the week with a gap-down opening, with the Sensex falling more than 500 points and the Nifty trading around the 24,200 level.

Nifty was trading at 24,208.50, down 125.80 points or 0.52 per cent while Sensex was trading at around 77,613.16, down 538.29 points or 0.69 per cent, at the time of reporting.

On BSE, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, SBI, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Reliance, Infosys, TCS, ITC among others were the top gainers. HDFC Bank, Indi Go, Maruti, BEL, Asian Paint, Eternal, Hindustan Unilever, Titan among others were ...