Indian shares fell for a fourth session on Thursday, in line with the fall in Asian shares, on increasing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea after the two countries exchanged threats.
Global risk appetite faltered resulting in investors piling onto havens such as U.S. Treasuries, gold and the yen after Pyongyang saying it is considering plans to attack U.S. island territory Guam.
The threat from the Korean peninsula came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said in response to a Washington Post report on North Korea's nuclear capabilities that further threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury."
At 0550 GMT, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.26 percent to 31,713 while the broader NSE Nifty lost 0.25 percent to 9,882.
Auto stocks led the losses. Eicher Motors fell 3.5 percent, Motherson Sumi lost 2.8 percent while TVS Motors declined 1.6 percent.
Tata Motors slumped 5 percent while Tata Motors DVR fell 5.6 percent after the company reported lower-than-expected performance by its JLR.
Among the financials, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank dropped between 1 percent and 1.7 percent.
Natco Pharma plunged 11 percent after posting a 47 percent decline in quarterly net profit.
Gainers included Idea Cellular, rising 2 percent after a block deal.
Market breadth was in the favour of losers, with about 2 stocks declining to every 1 stock that advanced.
