The Indian share markets ended sharply lower on the weekend of Friday.  At intraday, the Sensex fell as much as 615 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 16,376.05. Finally, at the close, Sensex ended lower by 300 points at 55,329 while Nifty just managed to hold at 16,450, diving 0.71 percent.

Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were among the top drags on the Sensex. Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 2 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index tumbled 2.2 percent.

Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 sector gauges, except FMCG shares, ended lower led by the Nifty Metal index's over 6 percent decline. Nifty Realty, Healthcare, Private Bank, Oil & Gas, PSU Bank, Auto and Bank indexes also fell between 1.5-4 percent.

Tata Steel was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped nearly 9 percent to close at RS 1,367. JSW Steel, Hindalco, UPL, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, State Bank of India, Dr Reddy's Labs, ONGC, Indian Oil, Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp also fell between 2.6-7 percent. On the flipside, Hindustan Unilever, Britannia Industries, Asian Paints, Nestle India, Bajaj Finance and SBI Life were among the notable gainers.

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