Sensex Drops Over 900 Points From Day's High, Nifty Below 10,050

Equity benchmark indices S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty gave up all of their intraday gains to nosedive in the last hour of trade amid intense selling pressure in banking and financial services shares. The Sensex plunged as much as 930 points from the day's highest level and the Nifty 50 index broke below its important psychological level of 10,050. Earlier in the day, Sensex had risen as much as 441 points from its previous close, and the Nifty 50 index climbed to as high as 10,291.

At 2:57 pm, the Sensex was down 1.27 per cent or 436 points at 33,934 and the Nifty fell 1.3 per cent or 132 points to 10,035.

Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading ower led by the Nifty Bank index's 2.5 per cent fall. Nifty Financial Services, Media, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Metal and Auto indexes also fell between 1.2-3 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma index was top gainer, up 1.4 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also extended losses with Nifty Midcap 100 index dropping 0.8 per cent an Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell bearly 2 per cent.

Tata Motors was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.5 per cent to Rs 111. GAIL India, Wipro, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, BPCL, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindalco also fell between 2.4-3.4 per cent each.

On the flipside, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Infratel, Cipla, Adani Ports and HDFC were among the gainers.