Equity benchmark indices swung nearly 1 per cent lower during the afternoon session on Thursday ahead of the expiry day of monthly futures and options contracts.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 335 points or 0.88 per cent at 37,736 while the Nifty 50 lost 101 points or 0.9 per cent at 11,102.
Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red except for Nifty pharma which gained by 3.1 per cent and IT which crawled up by 0.6 per cent. Nifty bank slipped by 2 per cent, financial service by 1.8 per cent and metal by 1.2 per cent.
Among stocks, energy majors were big losers with Bharat Petroleum Corporation down by 8 per cent to Rs 417.80 per share. IndianOil Corporation dipped by 4.1 per cent, ONGC by 2.4 per cent and Power Grid Corporation by 2.3 per cent.
Banking scrips too witnessed losses with IndusInd Bank dipping by 5.4 per cent, Axis Bank by 3.4 per cent and State Bank of India by 2.4 per cent while home loan lender lost by 3.6 per cent.
Pharma stocks, however, witnessed handsome gains with Dr Reddy's advancing by 4.6 per cent to close at Rs 4,500 per share. Sun Pharma and Cipla were up by 3.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.
Wipro, Infosys, Vedanta, Maruti Suzuki, Britannia and Reliance Industries too traded with a positive bias.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks were flat as the US Federal Reserve members voted to leave the target range for short-term rates between 0 and 0.25 per cent to support the country's virus-battered economy.
Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were down by 0.26 per cent and 0.69 per cent but South Korea's Kospi moved up by 0.17 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )