Sensex falls 386 pts, Nifty below 11,500 level; Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, SBI among losers

After a positive start in the pre-open session, Indian share markets slipped into the negative territory. Major indices were trading lower following the global trend. At 9:35 am, BSE Sensex was trading 385.66 points or 1.01 percent lower at 37,951.35, while NSE's benchmark index Nifty 50 was trading 0.82 percent lower at 11,326. On the BSE and NSE, majority of the shares were trading in the red. Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Vedanta, YES Bank, and ONGC were the gainers in the Nifty 50 index, while Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, BPCL, and Indian Oil were the top losers.

In the benchmark Nifty index, only 15 shares advanced, 36 slipped into the negative territory and one remained unchanged. Of the Nifty sectoral indices, only Nifty IT was doing well, led by tech giants Infosys, TCS and Tech Mahindra. 

Bank Nifty slipped nearly 1.5 percent, as all the leading banks such as SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, PNB, Bank Of Baroda, Kotak Bank, and IndusInd Bank, among others, were trading lower than the  previous day's close. Private bank shares fell more than their PSU peers.

Amid high tensions in the Middle East after a British tanker was seized by the Iranian military  last week, oil prices rose on Monday, according to Reuters. Brent crude futures rose 0.8 percent at $62.98 a barrel by 0042 GMT.  The international benchmark rose to $63.47. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 15 cents at $55.78.

Asian markets today opened lower  over the reduced expectations of an aggressive interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve and Middle East tension.