Mumbai: Sensex declined for the third day in a row on Thursday, tumbling 354.54 points in early trade as profit-taking in HDFC twins and weak global equities continued to drag down the benchmark index.


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The 30-share Sensex slumped 354.54 points lower to 59,255.87 points while the broader Nifty 50 fell 91.35 points to 17,716.30 points.


HDFC, HDFC Bank, Titan, Wipro, TCS, Nestle and Reliance Industries Limited were the major drags in early trade. In contrast, Dr Reddy's, NTPC, Axis Bank and Sun Pharma were among the gainers.


On Wednesday, the BSE barometer tanked 566.09 points to 59,610.41 points while the Nifty declined 149.75 points to 17,807.65 points.


In Asia, markets in Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo were trading lower in mid-session deals. Stocks in the US also ended lower in the overnight session.


"Recent market weakness is partly due to the increasingly hawkish commentary from the US Fed," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.


International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.71 per cent to USD 102.80 per barrel.


"Nasdaq closed 2.22 per cent lower yesterday after minutes from the US Fed's March meeting showed that central bank will move aggressively to head off inflation. European indices also closed in the red yesterday. All the major Asian markets are trading in negative territory in the early Thursday trade," according to Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS at Hem Securities.


Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2,279.97 crore on Wednesday, as per exchange data. 


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