Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Asian shares traded weak as concerns over the global growth dented the confidence of investors in equities".

European markets, however, were trading narrowly mixed in their late morning deals. The CAC was up by 0.05 per cent and the DAX by 0.27 per cent while FTSE was down by 0.07 per cent.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth just Rs 5.39 crore as per provisional data.

In the domestic market performance today, 20 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended lower while 10 declined.

Major losers were ONGC (3.21 per cent), Tata Steel (2.85 per cent), Bharti Airtel (2.77 per cent), Reliance Industries (2.76 per cent), Tata Power (2.59 per cent), GAIL (2.50 per cent), Infosys (2.18 per cent) and Hero Moto (1.88 per cent).

NTPC (1.40 per cent), Tata Motors (1.33 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.30 per cent), Cipla (1.10 per cent) and Wipro (1.02 per cent) also fell while Coal India rose by 1.00 per cent, Hindalco 0.91 per cent, Dr Reddy's Lab 0.86 per cent and Maruti 0.53 per cent, among others.

Among S&P BSE sectoral indices, Oil&Gas 2.48 per cent, Realty 2.03 per cent, IT 1.18 per cent, Teck 1.05 per cent, Power 1.93 per cent and Auto 0.81 per cent.

Total turnover rose to Rs 3,307.19 crore from Rs 3,040.59 crore yesterday.