MUMBAI: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on Wednesday after a record-breaking rally, tracking extremely weak trends from the global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 721.75 points to 81,833.69 after a weak beginning to the trade. The NSE Nifty tanked 196.05 points to 25,083.80.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank were the major laggards.

Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, and Hindustan Unilever were the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading sharply lower.

The US markets ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

"The selloff in US markets yesterday (Tuesday) was triggered by growth concerns. There are indications of US manufacturing moving into contraction, thereby threatening the soft landing expectation, which has been the pillar of support for the mother market US and consequently for other markets, too," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Halting its 10-day rally on Tuesday, the BSE benchmark dipped 4.40 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 82,555.44. The Nifty, however eked out a marginal gain of 1.15 points to settle at 25,279.85, its highest-ever closing level.

In the 10-day rally, the BSE benchmark spurted 2,135 points, or 2.61 per cent. Nifty has surged nearly 1,141 points or 4.59 per cent in 14 straight days.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,029.25 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.61 per cent to USD 73.30 a barrel.