<b>RBI effect:</b> Sensex tanks 493pts

The Sensex continued to slip deeper into the red in mid-noon trades, and was down around 493 points at 12,579 following the Reserve Bank of India decision to hike the cash Reserve Ratio and repo rate last Friday.

The NSE Nifty has shed 150 points at 3671.

Auto and banking stocks continue to bear the brunt of the selling today.

Tata Motors has tumbled almost 8% to Rs 670. Maruti has plunged 7% to Rs 764, and Bajaj Auto has shed 6% to Rs 2,277. Hero Honda has dropped over 5% to Rs 649.

SBI has slumped nearly 6% to Rs 935. ICICI Bank has slipped over 5% to Rs 809, and HDFC Bank has declined over 4% to Rs 908.

Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, ONGC, BHEL, Satyam, HLL and HDFC are down 4-5% each to Rs 1,535, Rs 532, Rs 838, Rs 2,159, Rs 449, Rs 197 and Rs 1,461, respectively.

Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel have dropped around 3.5% each to Rs 404 and Rs 737, respectively.

Out of 2,338 stocks traded so far, 1,567 have declined, 707 have advanced and 64 are unchanged.