Indian stocks lost more than 2% on Thursday amid a global sell-off as investors became jittery following a fresh wave of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and the Federal Reserve forecasting the US economy would decline by 6.5% duirng the current financial year.

The 30-share Sensex lost 708.68 points or 2.07%, to close at 33,538.37.

As many as 25 of the Sensex constituents lost ground with stocks such as Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India contributing the maximum to the losses.

The overall market breadth was also quite weak with more than 1,500 stocks declining against 993 that advanced.

Meanwhile, the broader Nifty closed below the psychological 10,000-mark at 9,902, shedding 214.15 points, or 2.12%.

Market participants attributed the fall to the weak global trend that led to most Asian indices ending the day deep in the red.

“Markets witnessed a sharp decline and shed over 2%, tracking unsupportive global cues,” said Ajit Mishra, vice-president, research, Religare Broking.

“The statement from the U.S. Fed that recovery from pandemic would take longer than expected triggered a weak start that worsened with a deep cut in the European indices in the latter half. The positioning of the global markets will continue to dictate the market trend ahead also,” he added.

Incidentally, U.S. States such as Florida, California and Texas, among others, have reported a spike in new COVID-19 cases even as the total number of cases in the country breached the two- million mark.

Both, Hang Seng and Nikkei lost over 2% each on Thursday. The Dow Jones was down by more than 1,000 points at the time of going to press.

Back in India, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a little more than ₹800 crore on Thursday while their domestic counterparts were net sellers at ₹874 crore.