Stock markets tumble in early trade on boiling crude oil prices, weak global trends

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on Thursday as a sharp jump in crude oil prices due to the widening crisis in West Asia weighed heavily on investors' sentiment.

Besides, weak global market trends and relentless foreign fund outflows also dampened sentiments, analysts said.

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The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 992.53 points to 75,871.18 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dived 310.55 points to 23,556.30.

From the 30-Sensex firms, Eternal, InterGlobe Aviation, Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Ports, Titan and ICICI Bank were among the biggest laggards.

Tech Mahindra, NTPC and Reliance Industries were trading in positive territory.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 8.98 percent to USD 100.24 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 were trading lower.

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.

"External headwinds have pushed the market into a weak zone. With the war continuing to rage with no signs of let up and Brent crude again bouncing back to USD 100 levels, the weakness is likely to persist.

"Even though DIIs are continuously buying in the market, DII buying is not helping the market to recover since FIIs are sustained sellers and show no signs of reversing their strategy in this uncertain global environment," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

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

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