Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty declined more than 1 per cent at close on Friday dragged down by a heavy sell-off in index major HDFC twins.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 694.96 points or 1.13 per cent to settle at 61,054.29. During the day, it plunged 747.08 points or 1.20 per cent to 61,002.17.

The NSE Nifty fell 186.80 points or 1.02 per cent to end at 18,069.

Among the Sensex firms, HDFC Bank tumbled 5.80 per cent followed by HDFC which plummeted 5.57 per cent. Both the stocks fell sharply amid reports that the merged HDFC entity could see significant outflow.

"The Indian market was dragged down by heavy selling in HDFC twins on fears of post-merger fund outflow. In addition, the cues from global peers were lacklustre as the ECB raised rates by 25 bps and signalled the need for further rate hikes.

"Wall Street has witnessed prolonged selling pressure due to apprehensions in the banking sector about the strength of regional banks," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Wipro and NTPC were the other major laggards.

Titan, UltraTech Cement, Maruti, Nestle, ITC and Larsen & Toubro were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Shanghai ended lower, while Hong Kong settled in the green.

European equity markets were trading higher. The US markets ended lower on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Thursday also as they bought equities worth Rs 1,414.73 crore, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.59 per cent to USD 73.65 per barrel.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 555.95 points or 0.91 per cent to settle at 61,749.25 on Thursday. The Nifty had advanced 165.95 points or 0.92 per cent to end at 18,255.80.

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