India, May 1 -- Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty closed nearly 1 per cent lower on Thursday as crude oil prices, weak global trends and foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 582.86 points or 0.75 per cent to settle at 76,913.50. During the day, it plunged 1,237.5 points, or 1.59 per cent, to 76,258.86, but recovered some of the losses in the second half of the session.

The 50-share NSE Nifty dived 180.10 points or 0.74 per cent to end at 23,997.55.

Among the 30-Sensex firms, Eternal, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement and Mahindra & Mahindra were the major laggards. Sun Pharma, Infosys, Bajaj Finance and Adani Ports were among the gainers. Brent crude...