The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes dropped in noon trading amid heightened volatility ahead of expiry of June futures and option contracts due later in the day. The benchmarks staged a sharp down move as banking, financial services, information technology and private sector banks came under selling pressure. Infosys, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top drags on the Sensex. Meanwhile, weak opening of European markets and subdued US stock futures also added to the weak sentiment back home.
As of 12:56 pm, the Sensex was down 317 points or 0.9 per cent at 24,551 and Nifty dropped 0.94 per cent or 97 points to 10,208.
Markets are likely to remain volatile in today's session as derivative contracts for June are set to expire today, analysts said.
Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Bank index's over 1 per cent decline. Nifty Financial Services, IT, Media, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Realty indexes also fell between 0.7-1.2 per cent.
On the other hand, Nifty FMCG index was up 0.7 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.3 per cent.
37 out of 50 shares in Nifty were trading lower led by Bharti Infratel's over 3 per cent decline. Asian Paints, Hindalco, Infosys, Eicher Motors, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC and Larsen & Toubro were also among the losers.
On the flipside, ITC, GAIL India, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, Wipro and JSW Steel were among the notable gainers.
The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,273 shares were advancing while 1,245 were declining on the BSE.
