Equity benchmarks halted their rally on Thursday, with the Sensex falling over 214 points in early trade, tracking weak global market trends.

The 30-share BSE index declined 214.11 points to 60,046.02 in early deals. The broader NSE Nifty went lower by 61.85 points to 17,882.40.

From the Sensex pack, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv and Nestle were among the biggest laggards.

On the other hand, Power Grid, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the gainers.

In Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower in mid-session deals.

Markets on the Wall Street had ended lower on Wednesday.

The BSE index jumped 417.92 points or 0.70 per cent to settle at 60,260.13 on Wednesday. The Nifty went higher by 119 points or 0.67 per cent to 17,944.25.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.10 per cent higher at USD 93.74 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the Indian capital market as they bought shares worth Rs 2,347.22 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

"The Fed minutes suggest continuation of the hawkish stance and this may slightly impact sentiments in the mother market, US. But this is unlikely to impact the bullish sentiments in India since the return of the FIIs have completely altered the market mood and the bulls are calling the shots now," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Prashanth Tapse - Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said, benchmark indices are expected to drift lower in early trades on Thursday, after the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting minutes that indicated Fed to stay hawkish on rate hike decision in its next meeting triggered a sharp fall in the US markets.