Sensex, Nifty fall 1%; ITC, Reliance, SBI drag

Indian shares fell 1 percent in afternoon trade with the NSE Nifty falling below 5650, weighed down by banking & financials, healthcare, oil & gas exploration and technology stocks. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC plunged 2 percent each while telecom operator Bharti Airtel was down 1.7 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 195.08 points to 18,563.55 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went down 61.30 points to 5,644.

Country's largest private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank slipped 0.6-0.8 percent while their rival State Bank of India was down 1.7 percent. Housing finance company HDFC tumbled 1.5 percent. Public sector lender PNB crashed over 6 percent following disappointing numbers in Q2FY13.

Healthcare stocks like Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla plummeted 1.5-2.35 percent.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro and state-run oil & gas producer ONGC fell over 1.25 percent.

Technology majors too were under pressure with the Infosys, TCS and Wipro losing 0.3-1.3 percent.

Two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp extended gains to 0.9 percent while utility vehicle maker M&M gained 1.55 percent.

The broader markets were down 0.9 percent as declining shares outnumbered advancing by a ratio of 1041 to 371 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
 
On the global front, France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell 0.5 percent each.