New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Thursday, giving up their gains of last four days, amid heavy selling in Kotak Mahindra Bank and foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 296.79 points to 73,556.15. The NSE Nifty dipped 97.15 points to 22,305.25.

From the Sensex basket, Kotak Mahindra Bank tanked over 12 percent after the RBI barred the company from onboarding customers online and issuing credit cards.

Cracking down on repeated non-compliance of IT norms, the RBI on Wednesday barred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and issuing fresh credit cards with immediate effect after the regulator found "serious deficiencies" in the lender's IT risk management.

Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Titan, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other major laggards.

In the last four days, the BSE benchmark climbed 1,363.95 points or 1.88 percent. In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo were quoting lower while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded in the positive territory.

Wall Street ended on a mixed note on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,511.74 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

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