The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes extended losses led by declines in banking shares such as HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank. Earlier in the day, the benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses and switched direction at least six times before turning negative. In afternoon trading, Sensex fell as much as 392 points and the NSE Nifty 50 index briefly dropped below 11,000-mark.

As of 2:24 pm, the Sensex fell 307 points or 0.8 per cent to 37,334 and the Nifty 50 Index declined 0.9 per cent or 95 points to 11,010.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal index's 3.2 per cent fall. Nifty Auto, Bank, PSU Bank and Private Bank sector gauges also fell over 1.5 per cent each.

On the other hand, nifty Realty index was top gainer, up 1.7 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock plunged 9 per cent to Rs 58.70. Vedanta, Tata Steel, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Tata Motors, ONGC and Coal India were also among the losers, down 3-4.2 per cent each.

On the flipside, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Eicher Motors, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Infratel, BPCL and HDFC were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was favoured sellers as 1,144 shares were declining while 614 were advancing on the NSE.