The domestic equity markets declined nearly half a per cent in Thursday's early deals, dragged by tech stocks, ahead of the weekly F&O expiry later in the day.

Infosys tumbled 4 per cent in opening deals as investors booked profit after the company largely beat Street estimates on all fronts for the December quarter results. Among other IT stocks, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra also slipped 2 per cent each.

At 9:40 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 49210.14 down by -282.18 points or by -0.57 % and then NSE Nifty was at 14494.15 down by -70.7 points or by -0.49 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 49795.19 and intraday low of 49073.85 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 14562.8 and intraday low of 14481.55

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 828.65,+6.24%), State Bank of India (Rs. 306.70,+4.80%), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 211.25,+2.35%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 102.50,+2.24%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 578.25,+2.21%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 4899.50,-2.85%), Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 2670.25,-2.76%), Bajaj Finserv Ltd. (Rs. 8791.50,-1.95%), Titan Company Ltd. (Rs. 1504.65,-1.48%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 602.10,-1.25%), among others.

Among the sectors, PSU index was at 6297.41 up by 99.72 points or by 1.61%. Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 46.95,+9.95%), Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd. (Rs. 30.55,+9.89%), Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd. (Rs. 209.45,+7.36%), Bank of Baroda (Rs. 75.20,+6.29%), State Bank of India (Rs. 306.70,+4.80%),.

CDS index was at 27288.96 down by -104.13 points or by -0.38%. Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd. (Rs. 14535.60,-3.47%), Amber Enterprises India Ltd. (Rs. 2497.80,-3.17%), VIP Industries Ltd. (Rs. 358.60,-2.50%), Orient Electric Ltd. (Rs. 232.95,-1.75%), Titan Company Ltd. (Rs. 1504.65,-1.48%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 3705 , shares advanced were 1422 while 2084 shares declined and 199 were unchanged.