Indian shares fell for a third straight session on Wednesday on disappointment over quarterly earnings, including that of Adani Ports which slumped nearly 12 per cent, while regional markets languished due to global growth and deflation worries.

Disappointing manufacturing surveys from China and the UK, combined with downgrades to growth and inflation forecasts from the European Commission soured investors' mood.

Domestic sentiment remained subdued as earnings results turned more negative. Among companies due to post results this week were Hero Motorcorp and Wockhardt Ltd.

The broader NSE index fell 40.45 points or 0.52 per cent to 7,706.55, after declining 1.3 per cent in the previous two sessions.

The benchmark BSE index dropped 127.97 points or 0.51 per cent to 25,101.73.

Barring IT, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, metal index plunged the most by 3.49 per cent, followed by infrastructure 2.41 per cent, realty 2.29 per cent and auto 2.05 per cent, while IT index was up 0.23 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were HDFC (+2.86%), NTPC (+1.35%), HDFC Bank (+0.89%), NTPC (+0.75%) and Sun Pharma (+0.55%), while the major losers were Adani Ports (-11.98%), Tata Motors (-6.76%), Tata Steel (-5.6%), BHEL (-3.78%) and ICICI Bank (-2.98%).

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone slumped on disappointment over its January-March earnings.

Among gainers, Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 0.5 per cent as the lender surpassed ICICI Bank to emerge as the 3rd most valued bank as its market valuation soared to Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

BASF India jumped 3.9 per cent after the chemicals company reported strong March-quarter results.

“I think better results are already out of the kitty and the initial euphoria on earnings is now fading. So the pressure will persist on the markets on account of results,” said U.R. Bhat, managing director of Dalton Capital, a unit of U.K. investment management firm Dalton Strategic Partnership.

A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks fell for a sixth day, their longest losing streak since February, as anxiety over the health of the global economy unnerves investors. South Korea's won dropped by the most in four months, crude oil traded below $44 a barrel and sovereign bonds rallied. Overnight, US stocks fell to their lowest level in three weeks on Tuesday, as weaker-than-expected manufacturing data in China revived worries about global growth and sent investors scurrying out of the perceived risk of equities. Eurozone producer prices continued to decline in March but the pace of decrease was slower than expected, figures from Eurostat revealed on Tuesday. Producer prices fell 4.2 per cent year-on-year in March, the same pace of decline as seen in February. Prices were expected drop 4.6 per cent. Month-on- month, producer prices advanced 0.3 per cent, confounding expectations for a 0.1 per cent fall. In February, producer prices had dropped 0.7 per cent. Excluding energy, producer prices logged an annual fall of 1.1 per cent versus a 0.8 per cent drop in February. Prices of energy plunged 12.1 per cent and intermediate goods prices slid 2.6 per cent. Durable consumer goods prices gained 0.8 per cent, while non-durable consumer goods prices fell 0.8 per cent.

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