Stock Market Update: Amid concerns over rising tensions in West Asia, domestic stock markets witnessed a sell-off on Thursday and benchmark indices fell by more than two percent. The Sensex fell by 1,769 points and the Nifty by a massive 547 points. Analysts said that continued withdrawal of foreign funds and rising crude oil prices affected investor sentiment. Due to this, the local markets closed with a decline for the fourth consecutive day.

The BSE's 30-share index Sensex fell 1,769.19 points or 2.10 percent to close at 82,497.10 points. During trading, at one point it fell 1,832.27 points to 82,434.02 points. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty also plunged 546.80 points or 2.12 percent to 25,250.10 points.

Among the Sensex companies, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Adani Ports and HDFC Bank registered significant losses. The all-round decline in the market can be gauged from the fact that out of the 30 Sensex companies, only JSW Steel managed to gain gains.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, at Geojit Financial Services, said that domestic markets fell sharply after Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel. Now the possibility of Israel retaliating on oil producer Iran has increased, which can give this conflict a bigger form. Nair said that SEBI's new rules for the futures and options (F&O) segment have also increased the concern about the reduction in the number of deals in the broader market. Along with this, due to attractive market valuations in China, foreign investors have now shifted their capital there, which has increased the pressure on Indian stocks.

According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) had made net sales of shares worth Rs 5,579.35 crore on Tuesday. In other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined while Japan's Nikkei closed with gains. China's stock markets will remain closed for the rest of the week due to the public holiday.

Most of the European markets were trading with a decline in the afternoon. On Wednesday, the US markets closed with a slight gain. Amid rising tensions in West Asia, global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 1.37 percent to $ 74.91 per barrel. The stock markets were closed on Wednesday on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. On Tuesday, the BSE Sensex fell 33.49 points to 84,266.29 points and the NSE Nifty closed with a slight decline of 13.95 points at 25,796.90 points.