Sensex, Nifty drop 1%; HDFC Bank, Tata Steel plunge 2%

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty fell 1% each in afternoon trade due to further sell-off in metals, telecom, capital goods, power and banks stocks. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and State Bank of India too extended losses.

The BSE benchmark dropped 168.70 points to 17,352.42 and the NSE benchmark went down 56 points to 5,261.15, but European markets opened flat.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank tanked 2.35% and housing finance company HDFC was down 1.8%. Top lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank declined 0.87% and 0.13%, respectively.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC fell over 0.5%. Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel tumbled 2%.

Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro slipped 1.6% and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL was down 1.3%.

Shares of Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Jindal Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, Tata Power and Hindalco plunged 2-3%.

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However, country's largest software services exporter TCS rose 1% and top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors was up 0.23%.

The broader markets saw major fall as compared to benchmarks; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 1.3% each.

The market breadth too was weak; about two shares declined for every share advancing on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, TVS Motor, Fresenius Kabi, Wockhardt, Himadri Chemical and Manappuram Finance gained 3-7% whereas Dewan Housing crashed 14%. HCC, KSK Energy Ventures, Indiabulls Real and Pantaloon Retail slipped 5%.

The rupee today breached the 56-mark, down 59 paise at 56.01 against the US dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange on high demand for the American currency from banks and importers.

(With inputs from PTI)