Indian benchmarks continued to hover in red during the noon trading session amid persistent selling pressure across most sectors. All the sectoral indices are trading ion the red. Nifty Midcap and smallcap indices down 1% each.

Overseas, European stocks may tumble at open on Thursday as investors await the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England's (BOE) policy decisions and policymakers' assessment of the ongoing Middle East conflict.

On the corporate front, Waaree Energies share price plunged nearly 11 per cent on the BSE on Thursday. MOIL shares tanked 5.5 per cent in trade on BSE, logging an intra-day low at ₹314.9 per share.

At 12:32 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 76645.22 down by -851.14 points or by -1.1 % and then NSE Nifty was at 23882.15 down by -295.5 points or by -1.22 %.

In the choppy trade so-far, Sensex touched intraday high of 77014.21 and intraday low of 76258.86 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24019.15 and intraday low of 23796.85.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 950.60,+2.22%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1178.90,+0.98%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1463.60,+0.23%), HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 1201.95,+0.19%), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 316.40,+0.06%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Eternal Ltd. (Rs. 244.30,-3.84%), InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (Rs. 4224.85,-2.79%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2250.95,-2.68%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 3073.00,-2.47%), UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 11537.25,-2.47%), among others.

Among the sectors, IT index was at 28431.95 up by 168.97 points or by 0.6%. Newgen Software Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 511.00,+6.33%), Dynacons Systems & Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 1096.50,+4.59%), BLS E-Services Ltd. (Rs. 191.20,+4.11%), Inventurus Knowledge Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 1620.00,+4.08%), Nintec Systems Ltd. (Rs. 519.90,+3.64%),.

On the flip side, Realty index was at 6119.31 down by -97.71 points or by -1.57%. Phoenix Mills Ltd. (Rs. 1751.90,-2.50%), Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (Rs. 1403.50,-2.18%), Oberoi Realty Ltd. (Rs. 1666.75,-1.79%), Godrej Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1832.50,-1.70%), DLF Ltd. (Rs. 584.55,-1.59%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4308 , shares advanced were 1383 while 2717 shares declined and 208 were unchanged.