Scaring away both domestic and foreign investors, the turmoil in banks in US and Europe has become another headache for Dalal Street bulls who were hoping for a recovery in March. Nifty is now down around 10% from its 52-week high level reached in December last year.

In the Sensex pack, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, Nestle and Kotak Bank were the top gainers

In the Sensex pack, Nestle, Titan, Asian Paints and HUL closed with over 2% gains. Sun Pharma, SBI, Tata Motors, Power Grid and Bajaj Finserv also closed with gains.

Asian equities rose, tracking a relief rally on Wall Street after US inflation data reinforced hopes that the Federal Reserve will likely go for a smaller rate hike when it meets next week.

Continued fears among investors triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and nervousness ahead of US inflation data forced Indian equity indices to end in the red for the fourth straight session.

in today's trade, India VIX has touched a high of 16.43. From its 52-week low of 10.17, it is up nearly 59%.

With news flow related to Adani and Fed rate hikes playing in the minds of investors, Nifty has lost around 4% of its value so far in the calendar year.

Leaving Dalal Street investors poorer by Rs 1.6 lakh crore, the Sensex today ended 671 points lower while Nifty fell below its 200-DMA.

While Sensex declined 542 points or 0.90% to settle at 59,806, Nifty dropped 165 points or 0.93% to end at 17,590.

BSE's Sensex rose 124 points or 0.21% to settle at 60,348. NSE's Nifty surged 43 points or 0.24% to end at 17,754.