Mumbai, Jan 7 (IANS): Panic selling triggered by the Chinese markets plunging deep, coupled with rising geo-political tensions and upcoming US macro-economic data, dragged down Indian equity markets on Thursday.

This led to a barometer index of the Indian equity markets receding close to its 52-week low. The index provisionally closed the day's trade down 553 points.

Initially, both the bellwether indices opened on a negative note following a rout in the Asian markets which was triggered by accelerated devaluation of the Chinese yuan, disappointing domestic macro-data and global uncertainties.

Commodity prices, too, plunged as the Chinese economy struggled. 

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index declined by 7.32 percent, which led to a halt in trading, as the circuit breaker mechanism was triggered. 

The Chinese markets' fall impacted other global bellwethers, including the Japanese and Australian indices, which reacted negatively.

Besides, caution prevailed over the upcoming domestic macro-data on industrial output, retail inflation and the third-quarter earning results which start coming in from January 12.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shed 553 points, or 2.18 percent.

Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day's trade deep in the red. It was lower by 172 points, or 2.22 percent at 7,569.30 points.

The Sensex of the S&P BSE, which opened at 25,224.70 points, provisionally closed at 24,853.09 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- down 553.24 points, or 2.18 percent from the previous day's close at 25,406.33 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,230.35 points and a low of 24,825.70 points in intra-day trade.

The Sensex closed the previous session on January 6 down 174 points, or 0.68 percent, while the Nifty was lower by 44 points, or 0.56 percent.

The S&P BSE market breadth favoured the bears -- with 2,197 declines and 681 advances.