Equity benchmarks continued to fall for the third day running on Thursday, with the Sensex tanking 246 points in early trade, amid weak Asian markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 246.06 points lower at 55,135.11. The broader NSE Nifty declined 79.7 points to 16,443.05.

From the Sensex pack, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC were the biggest laggards.

In contrast, Reliance Industries, TCS, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India were among the major gainers.

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

Stock markets in the US had ended lower on Wednesday.

The Sensex declined 185.24 points or 0.33 per cent to settle at 55,381.17 on Wednesday. The Nifty dipped 61.80 points or 0.37 per cent to finish at 16,522.75.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.56 per cent to USD 114.48 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,930.16 crore on Wednesday, as per stock exchange data.

"Inflation fears along with interest rate hikes going ahead are back on front pages. FPI outflows too are seen denting sentiments," said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.