The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex plunged over 500 points at the end of the session on Monday with consumer durables, capital goods, oil & gas and realty sector stocks leading the decline amid weak Asian markets.
Continued selling by funds and retail investors on fears of another hike in key interest rates by RBI to reign in inflation led to the downtrend.
At 3.30 p.m., the Sensex was down 528.27 points at 19,163.54 and the Nifty was down 148.95 points at 5,755.65.
Volume toppers during the session were SBI, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, L&T and ICICI Bank. Major Sensex losers were L&T, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, RIL, BHEL and ITC. ONGC, SBI and Infosys were the major gainers.
Among the sectoral indices, realty was down 3.79%, capital goods 3.63%, consumer durables 3.47% and oil & gas 3.44%. Of the total 3,002 stocks traded, 612 advanced, 2,329 declined and 61 remained unchanged.