Indian equity benchmarks crashed in Thursday’s trading session, with both Sensex and Nifty closing the day over 2% cut, as traders remained cautious about escalating tensions in the Middle East following Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel.

TheNIFTY50 ended at 25250.10, down by 546.80 points or 2.12% after trading in a range of 25230.30 and 25639.45. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index. While the SENSEX ended at 82497.10, down by 1769.19 points or 2.10% after trading in a range of 82434.02 and 83752.81. The advance decline ratio on Thursday went in favor of declines as 29 out of SENSEX 30 stocks declined while only one stock gained on the index.

The only gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 1.15% and ONGC up by 0.03%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 5.27%, Shriram Finance down by 4.51%, Larsen & Toubro down by 4.27%, Axis Bank down by 4.15% and Tata Motors down by 4.09% were the top losers.

Indian equity benchmarks extended losses in morning deals dragged by a decline in heavyweight stocks Asian Paints, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki. Escalating tensions in the Middle East, coupled with the implementation of changed norms for trading in index derivatives, also weighed on market sentiment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82,920 down by 1300 points or 1.6% after trading in a range of 83002.09 and 83752.81. Three stocks advanced on the index, while 27 stocks declined. While NIFTY50 is trading nearly 400 points lower at 25,398 levels during mid market session. Five stocks from the index were trading in green while remaining 45 traded in the red.

Shares of Bharat Forge are trading 0.6% lower on Thursday at ₹1,519 apiece on the NSE. The company announced its subsidiary plans to enter into agreement with US defence companies.

Kalyani Strategic Systems, a 100% subsidiary of Bharat Forge, India, is planning to enter into a multi-party agreement with leading United States defense companies, AM General and Mandus Group LLC, to explore the co-development and co-production of next-generation artillery gun platforms.

As the battlefield changes with near peer adversaries, there is increasing demand for modern light artillery systems with enhanced firepower, precision strike, tactical mobility, and command & control capabilities.

This collaboration is targeted to address the requirement of modern armies of the world in an evolving combat scenario equipping them with compact, robust, light weight, ruggedized, mobile, all weather, all terrain 105mm and 155mm next generation artillery gun platforms.

Shares of Dabur India slipped nearly 6% in the opening deals after the homegrown FMCG firm on Tuesday said its profitability in the second quarter will be impacted due to low primary sales with heavy rain and floods in parts of India affecting out-of-home consumption and consumer offtake despite demand trends seeing some improvement.

In its Q2 business update, Dabur India said it expects to post a mid-single-digit decline in consolidated revenue for the second quarter due to a correction in distributor inventory in the general trade (GT) channel.

The key benchmark indices along with broader markets opened lower on Thursday after Iran launched missiles attacks on Israel on Tuesday evening. The crude oil and Gold prices shot up immediately after the attack. The NIFTY50 is currently trading 236 points lower at 25,560 levels and SENSEX tumbled below 84,000 mark and led by index heavyweights like Reliance (-1.5%), ICICI Bank (-1.1%) and HDFC Bank (-0.8%).

On the other side NIFTY midcap 100 and small-cap 100 are trading 0.71% lower on Thursday morning. JSW Steel (+1.9%), ONGC (+1.83%), Hindalco (+0.3%) and Tata Steel (+0.1%) are the only gainers from the NIFTY50, while top losers from the index included BPCL(-2.8%), Eicher( Motors (-2.8%),Wipro(-2.2%) and Asian Paints(-2.1%)