Buy or sell stocks, Aug. 25 -- Indian stock market benchmarks witnessed sharp declines on Friday, August 22, as profit booking swept across sectors amid mixed global signals.

The Sensex tumbled over 700 points, nearly 1 per cent, to touch an intraday low of 81,291.77, while the Nifty 50 slipped almost 1 per cent to reach 24,859.15 at its lowest point of the day. By the close, the Sensex ended 694 points, or 0.85 per cent, down at 81,306.85, and the Nifty 50 finished 214 points, or 0.85 per cent, lower at 24,870.10.

Meanwhile, the broader markets fared relatively better, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declining 0.23 per cent and 0.35 per cent, respectively.

Vaishali Parekh, Vice President of Technical Research at Prabhudas Lil...