The benchmark BSE Sensex plunged nearly 200 points as geo-political tug-of-war over West Asia and the Korean Peninsula weighed on the domestic sentiment.

Also, domestic investors turned wary ahead of release of industrial production (IIP) data for February and consumer price index (CPI) for March after market closing today.

At 11.50 a.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 182.38 points or 0.61 per cent at 29,605.97 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 57.45 points or 0.62 per cent at 9,179.55.

Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index fell the most by 1.22 per cent, followed by power 1.08 per cent, capital goods 0.77 per cent and PSU 0.73 per cent.

Top five Sensex losers were Tata Steel (-1.83%), Maruti (-1.59%), Power Grid (-1.43%), Tata Motors (-1.34%) and Adani Ports (-1.29%), while the major gainers were Hero MotoCorp (+0.45%), Infosys (+0.29%), HDFC Bank (+0.2%), Coal India (+0.17%) and Bajaj Auto (+0.00%).

Global markets

Investors ducked for cover as a drumbeat of alarming geopolitical news sent the safe-haven yen and gold to five-month highs and yields on top-rated sovereign bonds to their lowest for the year so far.

North Korea had warned on Tuesday of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of aggression, as a US Navy strike group steamed toward the Korean peninsula - a force President Donald Trump described as an “armada".

At the same time, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Moscow to denounce Russian support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad, raising the stakes in West Asia.