Sensex, Nifty today: Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell for a second straight day dragged by in banking and financial services shares. The benchmarks opened on a weak note and extended declines in noon deals owing to selling pressure due to expiry of futures and option contracts for the month of August, analysts said. HDFC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the biggest drags on the Sensex.

The Sensex closed 383 points or 1 per cent lower at 37,069 and the NSE Nifty 50 index dropped 98 points or 0.9 per cent to settle at 10,948.

Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank Index's 2.5 per cent fall.

Nifty Bank, Private Bank, Financial Services and Media sector gauges also fell between 1.3 and 1.9 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma index was top gainer, up 2.2 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index tumbled 0.9 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock plunged 3.4 per cent to close at Rs 57.50 after the credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded its long-term foreign-currency issuer rating to "Ba3" from "Ba1". Moody's has also downgraded the bank's long-term foreign and local currency bank deposit ratings to "Ba3" from "Ba1", foreign currency senior unsecured MTN program rating to "(P) Ba3" from "(P) Ba1", and adjusted baseline credit assessment (BCA) to "b1" from "ba2".

State Bank of India, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, ITC, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors were also among the losers, down between 1.6 and 3.3 per cent each.

On the flipside, Sun Pharma was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 5 per cent to Rs 434. Bharti Infratel, JSW Steel, Vedanta, Coal India, NTPC, ONGC, Eicher Motors, Indian Oil and GAIL were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth favoured sellers as 1,119 shares closed lower while 662 ended higher on the NSE.