Sensex, Nifty slump over 2%; ICICI Bank, L&T down over 3%

Benchmark share indices slumped over 2% amid a sharp sell-off across the board with financials and index heavyweights leading the decline. Further, geo-political developments emerging from the Middle-East also dampened sentiment.

At 11:45AM, Sensex was down 599 points at 26,840 and the 50-share Nifty was down 192 points at 8,133.

Meanwhile, market participants would be keeping an eye on the developments in Parliament, especially with regard to the GST bill.

CRUDE OIL

Global crude prices surged on reports that that Saudi Arabia's borders were being attacked by Yemen rebels. Crude oil futures on the NYMEX were trading 1.5% higher at $61.32 a barrel in electronic trade.

CURRENCY

The rupee weakened further and was trading at 63.58 a dollar compared to previous day's closing value of 63.44 per dollar tracking a sell-off in equities.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets remained subdued with shares in China marginally up by 0.3% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Straits Times were down 0.2-0.3%.

SECTORS AND STOCKS

All sectoral indices were trading in the red with Realty, Power and Metal indices being the top losers down over 3% each.

Financial shares were among the top losers. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC and SBI were down 1.3-2.5% each.

Among the index heavyweights, Infosys and ITC were down over 2% each while Reliance Industries was down 1.5%.

L&T, TCS, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, NTPC and HUL were among the other Sensex losers.

In the oil space, oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) have dropped 4-6% each as oil prices hit their highest for the year on Tuesday.

Metal shares also declined on profit taking after two successive days of gains. Jindal Steel, NMDC, Hindalco and Tata Steel have shed 2-3% each.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel is the sole BSE Sensex gainer, rising nearly 4% in an otherwise subdued market on the buzz that Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Global Standard Indexes increased the weightage of the company in the MSCI India Index to 2.6% from 1.3%, effective June 1, 2015.

The broader market also witnessed a sell-off with both the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down 2.4% each.

Market breadth was weak with 1,858 losers and 419 gainers on the BSE.