Bears have taken complete control over the markets in today's session after yesterday's bull run and closed the day on a weaker note. Main culprits were realty, banking, technology, capital goods, metal, oil and power stocks. Banks and realty stocks had led rally in yesterday's trade but today, both sectors were main draggers. Selling pressure in European markets also weighed on the markets.

The markets had opened with marginal gains and remained volatilie for first half of session, which seemed that tussle between bulls and bears. But ultimately after 12:30 pm, both indices started drifting lower and broken psychological levels. The Nifty closed below 4600 and the Sensex below 15500 levels.

The Sensex has touched an intraday low of 15,390.22 and high of 15,789.62, before closing the day at 15,422.31, down 274.59 points or 1.75%. The Nifty plunged 70.6 points or 1.52% at 4582.40 after hitting a high/low of 4679.75 and 4569.90.

Amongst frontliners, HCL Tech plunged -4.48%, ICICI Bank -4.11%, HDFC Bank -3.73%, Tata Steel -3.30% and L&T -3.12% while Ambuja Cements was up 4.80%, Zee Entertain 3.39%, Ranbaxy Labs 2.88%, Grasim 2.38% and Maruti Suzuki 1.24%.

Market breadth was negative; about 1305 shares have advanced while 1458 shares declined. Nearly 358 shares remained unchanged on the BSE.

BSE Bankex has underperformed other indices, down 3.45% or 260.73 points at 7,306.44 due to heavy sell off in Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, Union Bank, PNB and SBI.

Realty stocks like have collapsed very badly. Index lost 213.41 points or 3.5% at 5,885.78 on the back of selling in Indiabulls Real, Puravankara Proj, Sobha Developers, Unitech, DLF and HDIL.

IT Index fell 2.39% or 106.26 points to settle at 4,333.94. Technology stocks like HCL Tech, i-Flex Solution, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Satyam, TCS and Wipro have plunged.

Capital Goods stocks also witnessed selling pressure. Index was down 243.94 points or 1.97% at 12,119.33 led by selling in Greaves Cotton, Areva T&D, Punj Lloyd, Larsen, BHEL, Thermax, BEML and Crompton Greaves.

Oil & Gas Index crashed 1.71% or 175.44 points to close at 10,066.35 due to losing counters like Essar Oil, Reliance Ind, Cairn India, GAIL and ONGC.

Metal stocks ended in the red. This includes Hind Zinc, Tata Steel, SAIL, Jindal Steel, NALCO and Sesa Goa, which forced the Index to close at 15,251.48, lower by 1.71% or 265.38 points.

Power stocks like Reliance Infra, Reliance Power, Tata Power, CESC and NTPC have crumpled. Index lost 1.05% at 2,675.

A bit of selling also seen in pharmaceutical space, which includes stocks like Aurobindo Pharma, Opto Circuits, Dr Reddy's Labs, Divis Labs, Lupin and Piramal Health. Index was down by 0.49% at 4,526.76.

However, Auto and FMCG indices finished marginally higher. In the FMCG space, United Spirits, United Breweries, Marico and ITC have gained. Amongst auto stocks, Hero Honda, Bosch, Hind Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland were up.

CNX Midcap was down 0.97% at 6213.65. Amongst midcap stocks, Bank of Maharashtra, IVRCL Infras, Aurobindo Pharma, Exide Industries, United Phos, Shipping Corp, Balrampur Chini, Pantaloon Retail, UCO Bank, Punj Lloyd and GSK Cons have plunged 3-6%.

Most active counters on the bourses were Ranbaxy Labs, Reliance Industries, L&T, Tata Steel, Suzlon Energy and Reliance Petroleum.

Total turnover traded by the markets stood at Rs 65955.85 crore. This includes Rs 12350.88 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 47440.71 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 6164.26 crore from BSE Cash segment.

On the global front, Asian markets ended in green barring Jakarta Composite. Nikkei was up 0.73%, Shanghai 5.24%, Kospi 1.34%, Taiwan Weighted 0.19%, Straits Times 0.39% and Hang Seng 1.16%. However, Jakarta fell 0.56%. European markets were trading weak ahead of results from Morgan Stanley, at the time of writing market report. FTSE 100 was down 1%, CAC 0.6% and DAX 0.14%.