Mumbai, March 12 -- Benchmark equity indices ended with deep cuts on Thursday, with the Sensex tumbling over 800 points amid a sharp rise in crude oil prices due to the heightening crisis in West Asia.

Besides, sluggish global market trends, weakness in the rupee and persistent foreign capital outflows also rattled investor sentiment, analysts said.

In a volatile session, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 829.29 points, or 1.08 per cent, to settle at 76,034.42. During the day, it plunged 992.53 points or 1.29 per cent to 75,871.18.

A total of 2,516 stocks declined, while 1,713 advanced and 175 remained unchanged on the BSE.

Similarly, the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 227.70 points, or 0.95 per cent, to close at 23,639.15.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 23,44,237.26 crore to Rs 4,40,06,434.01 crore ($4.77 trillion).

Mahindra & Mahindra was the biggest loser among the Sensex constituents, dropping 4.23 per cent, followed by Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement and Trent.

In contrast, NTPC, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Reliance Industries were the winners.

The BSE smallcap select index declined 0.65 per cent, and the midcap select index dipped 0.55 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, auto tanked 2.92 per cent, FMCG (1.62 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.59 per cent), realty (1.53 per cent), private banks index (1.45 per cent) and top 10 banks (1.29 per cent).

On the other hand, utilities jumped 3.31 per cent, power (2.51 per cent), energy (1.06 per cent), capital goods (0.55 per cent), oil & gas (0.52 per cent) and metal (0.45 per cent).

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 4.78 per cent to $96.47 per barrel.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended lower.

European markets were quoting in negative territory.

The US market ended mostly lower on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 6,267.31 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) bought stocks worth Rs 4,965.53 crore.

On Wednesday, the Sensex tumbled 1,342.27 points or 1.72 per cent to settle at 76,863.71. The Nifty tanked 394.75 points or 1.63 per cent to end at 23,866.85.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.