As many as 77 stocks hit their 52-week low levels in morning trade on Thursday as domestic equity benchmark indices witnessed heavy selling pressure after Russia announced a military operation in Ukraine.
Broader markets were badly hit as sustained selling pressure pulled the Sensex midcap and smallcap down by around 3.31 per cent and 3.37 per cent, respectively.
On the sectoral front, all sectoral indices were trading in the red with the BSE Telecom, BSE Realty and BSE Teck suffering the maximum loss of around 4.47 per cent, 3.91 per cent and 3.19 per cent, respectively.
The advance-decline ratio was massively tilted in favour of the bears with 266 advances and 2,893 declines.
As many as 77 stocks from BSE 500 index which hit their 52-week low in the morning session on Thursday include Dr Reddy's, Exide Industries, HDFC Life, Apollo Tyres, BPCL, DCB Bank, HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd, Gillette India Ltd, and Wockhardt Ltd.
At 1144 hours, the 30-share Sensex was trading 1465.96 points or 2.56 per cent lower at 55,766.10, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 433.95 points, or 2.54 per cent, to 16,629.30.