Fifteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the Metal Index's 1.2% decline.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes extended losses dragged by weakness in ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex fell as much as 201 points from its previous close to hit intraday low of 39,549 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell below important level of 11,900. PSU Banking, Metal and Media shares were facing heightened selling pressure as the respective sector gauges on the National Stock Exchange fell between 1.9 and 2.8 per cent each.

As of 1:32 pm, the Sensex traded 0.41 per cent or 164 points lower at 39,593 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 0.41 per cent or 49 points to 11,879.

Seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Metal Index's 1.2 per cent decline. Auto, Basic Materials, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services, Industrials, Oil & Gas and Realty sector gauges also dropped between 1.1 and 0.6 per cent each.

On the flipside, S&P BSE Information Technology Index was top gainer, up 1.12 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing selling pressure as the S&P BSE MidCap Index declined 0.4 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index fell 0.15 per cent.

Vedanta was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 2.6 per cent to Rs 165.15. Zee Entertainment, ONGC, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, UPL, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Indian Oil, Tata Motors and JSW Steel were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Bharti Infratel, TCS, GAIL India, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Britannia Industries and Yes Bank were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was marginally negative as 1,183 shares were declining while 970 were advancing on the BSE.