The Sensex ended 298 points or 0.78 per cent lower at 37,880.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes resumed their downward journey after a day's break in the previous session. Losses in banking and financial services shares like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank dragged the benchmarks lower in today's session. The Sensex fell as much as 375 points at the day's lowest level and the 50-share Nifty touched an intraday low of 11,209. Gauge of banking shares on the NSE was worst hit in today's trade with a cut of over 750 points.

The Sensex ended 298 points or 0.78 per cent lower at 37,880 and the NSE Nifty 50 index declined 0.70 per cent or 79 points to settle at 11,235.

All the 11 sector gauges compiled by NSE ended lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's nearly 3 per cent fall.

Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Auto, Nifty Media and Nifty Metal indexes also fell between 1.3-2.8 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 1.16 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped 0.47 per cent.

IndusInd Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares. The stock fell 6 per cent to close at Rs 1,229.55 after the bank reported its September quarter earnings. IndusInd Bank's net profit rose 50 per cent to Rs 1,383.37 crore.

Yes Bank, GAIL India, Tata Motors, Vedanta, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Steel and HDFC Bank were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Bharti Airtel rose 4.35 per cent to Rs 375.05 after Reliance Jio raised prices of outgoing calls to other network operators to 6 paise per minute. Reliance Industries, Grasim Industries, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Titan and Sun Pharma were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,139 shares ended lower while 644 closed higher on the NSE.