Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Thursday, giving up their gains of last four days, amid heavy selling in Kotak Mahindra Bank and foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 296.79 points to 73,556.15. The NSE Nifty dipped 97.15 points to 22,305.25.

From the Sensex basket, Kotak Mahindra Bank tanked over 12 per cent after the RBI barred the company from onboarding customers online and issuing credit cards.

Cracking down on repeated non-compliance of IT norms, the RBI on Wednesday barred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and issuing fresh credit cards with immediate effect after the regulator found "serious deficiencies" in the lender's IT risk management.

Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Titan, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other major laggards.

Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Nestle and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

In the last four days, the BSE benchmark climbed 1,363.95 points or 1.88 per cent.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo were quoting lower while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded in the positive territory.

Wall Street ended on a mixed note on Wednesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.02 per cent to USD 88.04 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,511.74 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark climbed 114.49 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 73,852.94 on Wednesday. The NSE Nifty advanced 34.40 points or 0.15 per cent to 22,402.40.

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