The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a gap-up start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 23,543 level, a premium of nearly 101 points from the Nifty future

The benchmark Sensex declined 319 points to end at 77,187, while the Nifty fell 121 points to settle at 23,361. Broader market sentiment remained weak as midcap stocks underperformed, with the Nifty Midcap index slipping 497 points to 52,

Nifty 50 also faced the wrath of bears with a decline of 243 points to fall below 23,250 levels. Both the benchmarks have tumbled by more than 1% each. The performance comes after the Union Budget announcement where deep tax changes were announced by FM Nirmala Sitharaman.