Sensex falls over 250 points, Nifty below 10,200

New Delhi: Stock markets opened in the negative zone on Thursday amidst sharp fall in global stocks.

The BSE Sensex fell 279.89 points or 0.82 percent to 33,754.07. The NSE Nifty dropped 73.45 points or 0.72 percent to 10,151.30.

Top laggards included Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Vedanta Ltd, RIL, HUL, L&T, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Asian Paint, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Ltd, PowerGrid, Yes Bank and Tata Steel, falling by up to 3.71 percent.

The rupee meanwhile dropped by 19 paise to 73.35 against the US dollar in early trade Thursday amid unabated foreign fund outflows.

Asian share markets face a rough ride on Thursday after a tumble in technology stocks inflicted the largest daily decline on Wall Street since 2011, wiping out all its gains for the year.

Nikkei futures were down 2.7 percent and pointing to opening losses of around 600 points for the cash index. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan seemed certain to start at its lowest since March last year, a Reuters report said.

With Agency Inputs