Market LIVE: Sensex down 900pts, Nifty near 16,550; financials weigh

Live market updates: The key benchmark indices continued to languish at the lows of the day on the back of persistent selling pressure in financial shares, mainly private institutions. The BSE Sensex was down more than 1,000 points around 55,200-odd levels, while the NSE Nifty50 index dipped below the 16,500-level, down nearly 300 points.

The likes of HDFC twins and ICICI Bank accounted for a loss of nearly 500 points on the BSE 20 share index. Asian Paints and Maruti were the other major losers, down around 4.5 per cent each.

The broader markets, however, continued to outperform. The BSE MidCap was down merely 0.1 per cent, while the SmallCap index was up 0.2 per cent as against the sharp 1.8 per cent fall on the BSE Sensex.
 

Sectorally, the BSE Bankex slumped 3 per cent. The Auto, Telecom and Realty indices were the other major losers. On the posiive front, the Metal index soared 4.4 per cent. The Oil & Gas and Power indices were up a per cent each.

The overall breadth was marginally positive. Out of 3,321 stocks traded on the BSE so far, 1,677 advanced and 1,494 declined.