The 30-share index, Sensex, fell deep into the negative zone because of continued selling action seen in banking and realty stocks.

It also touched an intraday low of 15,075.14. Midcap and Smallcap declined 1.47% and 1.16% respectively.

At 12:52 p.m., the BSE Sensex lost 322.73 points quoting at 15,099.58, while NSE Nifty stood at 4,503, down 78.9 points.

The overall market breadth is sharply negative. Out of the total 2,492 shares traded at the BSE, 704 advanced, 1707 turned down whereas 81 remained unchanged.

All the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex, dipped 4.11%, Realty lost 3.68%, and Consumer Goods fell 3.60%. Rest all indices traded down marginally.

The gainers at the BSE Sensex were RComm, M&M, Wipro, Tata Steel, ITC and Cipla.

The major losers at the BSE Sensex included Ranbaxy, which plunged 5.23%, BHEL and HDFC Bank dropped over 4%. L&T, SBI, HDFC, ICICI Bank, TCS, and Grasim also dipped.