The Sensex plunged 1,115 points while the Nifty crashed below the 10,850-mark on Thursday as investors dumped equities amid a sharp global sell-off and concerns over economic recovery.

World markets were bathed in a sea of red as fears about a second wave of coronavirus infections in major economies and lack of fresh stimulus from central banks clobbered sentiment.

Back home, a sharp depreciation in the rupee and volatility on F&O expiry day further weighed on the bourses, traders said.

Sliding for the sixth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 1,114.82 points or 2.96 per cent to finish at 36,553.60. The benchmark posted its biggest single-day fall since May 4 this year, when it had plunged over 2,000 points.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty tanked 326.30 points or 2.93 per cent to close at 10,805.55. The Sensex has now lost 2,749.25 points in six days, while the Nifty has declined by 799 points.

The market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,48,76,217.22 crore, down by Rs 3.95 lakh crore compared to the previous session.

Barring Hindustan Unilever, which inched up 0.36 per cent, all Sensex components ended in the red on Thursday.

IndusInd Bank was the top laggard, tumbling 7.10 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, M&M, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and Infosys.

"Weak global cues coupled with worrying data points from the US led to a gap down start today even as the re-emergence of the virus rattled the Euro zone. Indices here saw deep cuts led by TCS and Infosys as both along with RIL were the ones which led the recovery in the last five months.

"The broader markets were pounded today much beyond the 3 per cent cut witnessed in the Indices," said S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

All sectoral indices closed with losses, with BSE IT index dropping 4.45 per cent, followed by teck, auto, metal, realty, basic materials, bankex and finance.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap gauges lost as much as 2.28 per cent.

In the forex market, the rupee depreciated 32 paise to finish at 73.89 against the US dollar.

In rest of Asia, South Korea's KOSPI index plunged 2.59 per cent. Markets in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong closed with losses of up to 1.82 per cent.

Bourses in Europe too started off on a weak note.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.22 per cent lower at USD 41.68 per barrel.