On Wednesday, Indian stocks opened higher, aided by broad-based gains across sectors and strong activity in global indices. 

The financial sector pulled down Indian equities as they opened on Friday but gains in IT firms prevented further declines in spite of Accenture's warning of decreased customer spending. 

On Thursday, the leading indices saw very slight losses. After reaching the day's high of 17,653.90 in morning session, the Nifty fell below the 17,550 levels.

On January 30, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned out to be the net sellers of shares worth Rs 6,792.80 crore and the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) turned out the net buyers of shares worth 5,512.63 crore. 

In the morning trade, the domestic equities barometers continued to fall and touched a new intraday low. 

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 578.15 points or 0.95 per cent, to 60,400, while the broader NSE index NIFTY lost 183.10 points or 1.01 per cent, to 17,935.20, on weak economic data from the United States that hinted at a possible recession and downbeat growth outlook from businesses.