The Sensex fell as much as 750 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index dropped to hit an intraday low of 16,534 after hitting high of 16,768
The Indian equity benchmarks erased gains in noon deals on the back of selling pressure in banking heavyweights like ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Sensex fell as much as 750 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index dropped to hit an intraday low of 16,534 after hitting high of 16,768. Analysts said investor sentiment turned weak ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
As of 12:47 pm, the Sensex was down 147 points at 55,322 and Nifty 50 index declined 57 points to 16,548.
Russian troops are in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and forced their way into the council building, the mayor said after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had made the first major gain of a city in its eight-day-long invasion, news agency Reuters reported.
Back home, eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Auto index's 1.4 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, PSU Bank and Private Bank indices were also trading lower.
On the other hand, oil & gas and metal stocks were witnessing buying interest for second straight session on the back of rising base metal and crude oil prices in international markets.
Broader markets were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.12 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.51 per cent.
Asian Paints was top Nifty lower, the stock fell 4.5 per cent to Rs 2,893 on concerns that rising crude oil prices will hurt its margins going ahead.
UltraTech Cement, HDFC Life, Shree Cements, Dr Reddy's Labs, SBI Life, Grasim Industries, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle India also fell between 1.6-4.4 per cent.
On the flipside, Wipro, Coal India, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Indian Oil, ITC, Cipla and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,203 shares were advancing while 1,006 were declining on the BSE.