Markets ended nearly 1% lower on Friday weighed down by selling pressure in banking major SBI on concerns of rising non-performing assets and profit taking in index heavyweights.
The Sensex provisionally ended down 168 points or 0.9% at 18,678 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 52 points or 0.9% at 5,686.
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(Updated at 14:51Hrs)
Markets slipped sharply in late trades on Friday post the SBI results with benchmark indices down 0.8% each. At 14:30 hrs, the Sensex was down 155 points at 18,691 and the Nifty lost 49 points at 5,690.
In the broader markets, the midcap index fell in line with the Sensex while the smallcap index was down 0.5%.
All the sectoral indices were in the red in the noon deals with PSU, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Banks and Capital Goods indices down 1% each. FMCG, Health Care and Auto indices down 0.4% each managed to hold on to some of the early gains.
Asian markets languished in trades on worries over fiscal problems in the US. Nikkei shed 1% to 8,758. Hang Seng, Kospi and Shanghai Composite dropped around half a% each.
Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Jindal Steel and Tata Power up 0.1-0.4% were the only gainers among the Sensex-30.
ONGC and SBI down 3.4% each were the top losers.
ONGC slipped after reporting a sharpest year-on-year fall in net profit since December 2008 quarter. The net profit of the state-owned oil exploration company has declined by 32% in September quarter to Rs 5,897 crore against Rs 8,642 crore in previous year quarter due to higher subsidy outgo.
SBI lost ground after announcing the quarterly numbers. India's largest PSU bank has reported at net profit of Rs 5,628 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.
The other notable losers included BHEL, Sterlite, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, NTPC, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever down 1-2%.
Stocks of Jet Airways, Dabur India and Reliance Industries cracked as a knee-jerk reaction post Arvind Kejriwal, an India Against Corruption Activist continued his string of revelations and pointed out that people associated with these companies hold accounts in the Geneva branch of HSBC.
Jet Airways (down 5.6%), RIL (down 1%), Dabur (down 4.5%), RCom (down 2.6%) and Reliance Power (down 3.04%) cracked in the intra-day deals on the Bombay Stock Exchange before staging a partial recovery.
The market breadth was negative. 1672 stocks declined while 1078 stocks advanced on the BSE.