Sensex drops by 496 points while Nifty hovers around 10,710

Equity indices faced bearish tendencies during the afternoon on Thursday as selling pressure extended across all segments.

At 2 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 496 points or 1.3 per cent at 36,068 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 129 points to 10,711.

At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red. Nifty media plunged by 4.6 per cent, PSU bank by 2.4 per cent, metal by 2.7 per cent and pharma by 1.8 per cent.

Among stocks, Yes Bank was the top loser which shed 12 per cent to Rs 56.35 per share after CARE Ratings downgraded ratings of non-convertible debentures of Morgan Credits, one of the private lender's promoter entities.

Other private lenders like IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank too were in the red.

Zee Entertainment plunged by 8 per cent following reports that its promoter has been restricted from selling its stake in the media company. Tata Steel and JSW Steel were down by 4.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.

The other prominent losers were Indiabulls Housing Finance which slipped by 7.7 per cent, Vedanta by 4 per cent and Reliance Industries by 2.1 per cent.

However, those which showed some gains were Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Britannia and Coal India.