The 30-share BSE Sensex made further inroads into the pessimistic region on inflationary information. Heavy selling pressure was seen across board in key stocks.

For the week ended March 22, the inflation rate has touched a 3-year high of 7%, as compared to 6.68% during the last week.

All sectoral indices were trading in the negative.

At 1:52 pm, the Sensex was trading at 15,402.44, down 430.11 points, or 2.72%; whereas NSE Nifty was trading at 4659.85, down 111.75 points, or 2.34%.

Out of the total 2,599 stocks traded, 765 progressed, 1,768 declined, whereas 66 remained unaltered.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Metal rejected 0.75%, BSE Oil & Gas slipped 1.60%, BSE Power, Realty Auto, IT and Bankex dropped more than 2%.

The major gainers at the BSE Sensex were Ranbaxy, which advanced 3.41% to Rs 462.10, Tata Steel was up 1.20% to Rs 667.50 and HUL climbed up 0.27% to Rs 244.00.

The losers at the BSE Sensex included BHEL and IT slipped more than 6% and HDFC rejected 4.68%. The losers’ list included M&M, Wipro, REL, Maruti,  Tata Motors, ITC, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.