Indian shares fell sharply on Thursday, with oil explorers pacing the declines after Brent crude prices fell below $65 a barrel on Wednesday on renewed signs of slack demand for crude and ample supplies. ONGC tumbled 3 percent, Reliance Industries fell 2.9 percent and Cairn India hit a 52-week low of Rs.250.20 before finishing 2.3 percent lower at Rs.251.05.
Media reports that states have opposed the Centre's revised draft on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a key reform that would put India on strong growth path, also dampened investor sentiment.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended the session down 229.09 points or 0.82 percent at 27,602.01, while the broader CNX Nifty index dropped 62.75 points or 0.75 percent to 8,292.90.
The Indian rupee weakened to its lowest level in more than nine months before rebounding a little bit on suspected central bank intervention. India's GDP growth is likely to improve to 6.3 percent in 2016 with the country leading economic recovery in South Asia, a United Nations report said.
Barring pharma, most other sectors ended in negative territory. Among the prominent decliners, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, Gail, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel fell 2-3 percent.
Havells India plummeted 9.2 percent as the company cut its FY15 revenue forecast, citing weak domestic demand. Jyoti Structures fell 2.8 percent after its managing director Santosh V. Nayak resigned from the company.
Sugar stocks extended gains for the second straight session after the government increased the procurement price of ethanol at the mill-gate by Rs.1.50 per liter. Balrampur Chine Mills jumped 5.9 percent, Bajaj Hindusthan soared 4.3 percent and Shree Renuka Sugars rallied 3.3 percent.
Puravankara Projects shares added 1.4 percent. The realty firm said it had sold 125 housing units through Google's online shopping festival.
Drugmaker Lupin rose 0.2 percent after launching a generic version of arthritis drug Celebrex in the U.S. market. Bank of Maharashtra closed marginally higher after lowering its base rate by 15 basis points to 10.25 percent.
Bharti Infratel climbed 5.5 percent on expectations the telecom tower company will be the biggest beneficiary after the February 2015 spectrum auction.
R Systems International soared over 10 percent on share buyback news. OM Metals Infraprojects gained 2.5 percent on winning an order.
On the global front, the Asian markets fell across the board after further falls in oil prices to fresh five-year lows triggered the biggest loss for U.S. stocks since October yesterday. Chinese shares fell on profit taking after recent gains, a stronger yen weighed on the Japanese market and Seoul shares tumbled in the aftermath of the central bank's decision to hold interest rates at a record low of 2 percent.
European stocks were marginally higher in early trading after three days of losses, as energy stocks rebounded and media reports suggested that the People's Bank of China is allowing banks to lend more than 75 percent of their deposits to quicken lending as the economy slows.
