New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS): India's key benchmark equity indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- declined sharply during the afternoon trade on Monday due to heavy outflow of funds.

At 3.23 p.m., Sensex was 1.7 per cent or 1,011 points down at 57,622 points, whereas Nifty was 1.7 per cent or 304 points down at 17,212 points.

"The Indian market is witnessing a sharp cut in Monday's trading session and this weakness can be attributed to heavy selling by FIIs amid rising US bond yields and crude oil prices," said Santosh Meena, Head of Research of Swastika Investmart.

"If we look at the profile of the stocks then there is a sharp cut in FIIs' favourite names and heavyweights like HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Kotak Bank, Reliance, etc., therefore we can expect large FIIs' selling figure in today's trading session however there is good buying in PSU banks, metal stocks and sugar stocks where earnings were strong."

Barring Nifty PSU bank, all sectoral indices traded deep in the red.

Nifty private bank, pharma, media, FMCG were some of the top losers.

Among stocks, Tata Consumers, L&T, HDFC Bank, HDFC Life, and Britannia were the top losers, NSE data showed.