The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes extended declines led by selling pressure in banking, auto, metal and financial services shares. The S&P BSE Sensex dropped as much as 540 points from intraday high of 37,950.21 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell below its crucial psychological level of 11,100 for the first time since March 11 marking the lowest level for the index in over four months. Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, HDFC, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the biggest drags on the Snesex.

As of 2:46 pm, the Sensex fell 218 points or 0.58 per cent to 37,468.41 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.67 per cent or 75 points to 11,115.

All sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange barring the Nifty Information Technology Index were trading lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank Index's nearly 5 per cent decline.

Nifty Bank, Auto, Media, Metal, Private Bank and Realty sector gauges also declined between 1.3 and 1.6 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock declined 6.44 per cent to Rs 88.65. Indiabulls Housing Finance, Hero MotoCorp, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, Grasim Industries, Indian Oil, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Bharti Infratel and Tata Motors also fell between 2.8 and 5.7 per cent each.

On the flipside, Bharti Airtel, TCS, ITC, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever and NTPC were among the notable gainers.

Among the individual shares, RBL Bank dropped 11.5 per cent to Rs 397.75 on the back of heavy volumes. As many as 12.54 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE compared with an average of 5.24 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks.

The overall market breadth favoured the sellers as 1,889 shares were declining while 558 were advancing on the BSE.