Benchmark equity indices began the trade on a muted note on Thursday and fell further in line with weak trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 115.41 points to 65,424.01. The NSE Nifty slipped 41.35 points to 19,423.65.

From the Sensex pack, ITC, ICICI Bank, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, Nestle, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra and Tata Motors were the major laggards.

Titan, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Maruti, State Bank of India and NTPC were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading lower while Shanghai quoted in the green.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Wednesday.

"Global cues for markets continue to be weak. There are two negatives weighing on global stock markets now: One, the US Fed minutes indicate that one more rate hike may be needed in this rate hiking cycle to tame inflation.

"Two, Chinese macro data indicate that the economy is slowing more-than-feared earlier, and this will impact global economic growth. In this scenario the Indian market is unlikely to break out to newer highs on a sustained basis and decouple from the rest of the world. However, a sharp correction appears unlikely," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.12 per cent to USD 83.55 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Wednesday as they bought equities worth Rs 722.76 crore, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 137.50 points or 0.21 per cent to settle at 65,539.42 on Wednesday. The Nifty gained 30.45 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 19,465.

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