Mumbai, May 12 -- Equity benchmark indices ended lower for the fourth consecutive session on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty tumbling nearly 2 per cent, as a spike in crude oil prices and uncertainty surrounding the West Asia conflict clouded markets' confidence.

Unabated foreign fund outflows and the rupee depreciating to a lifetime low also impacted investor sentiment.

Amid a widespread sell-off, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 1,456.04 points, or 1.92 per cent, to settle at 74,559.24. During the day, it dived 1,565.78 points, or 2 per cent, to 74,449.50.

A total of 3,412 stocks declined, while 869 advanced and 129 remained unchanged on the BSE.

The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 436.30 points, or 1.83 per cent, to end at 23,379.55.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 16.77 lakh crore to Rs 4,56,02,981.70 crore ($4.77 trillion) in four days.

In four trading days, the BSE gauge has tanked 3,399.28 points or 4.36 per cent, and the Nifty slumped 951.4 points or 3.91 per cent.

From the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, Adani Ports, HCL Tech, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan and Bharat Electronics were among the major laggards.

On the other hand, the State Bank of India was the only winner from the pack.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap Select index tanked 2.92 per cent, and the SmallCap Select index declined by 2.73 per cent.

Sectorally, realty dropped 4.22 per cent, Focused IT (3.61 per cent), services (3.51 per cent), IT (3.37 per cent), consumer durables (3.35 per cent) and industrials (3 per cent).

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, traded 2.75 per cent higher at $107.1 per barrel.

onment ahead," he said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 8,437.56 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

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

Markets in Europe were trading lower.

US markets ended in positive territory on Monday.

On Monday, the BSE benchmark tanked 1,312.91 points or 1.70 per cent to settle at 76,015.28. The Nifty dropped 360.30 points or 1.49 per cent to end at 23,815.85.

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