Benchmark indices came crashing down in trade as European stocks took a big hit on banking worries there. Comments by US Fed Chair Person Janet Yellen on weakness in the global economy and risks from China only added fuel to the fire.

Poor results from some banking majors in Europe, particularly Societe Generale, which fell as much as 10 per cent aggravated selling in stocks in Europe, adding to pressure in Indian markets.

Stocks like Reliance and HDFC, which are heavyweights and seldom fall heavily, dropped as much as 4 per cent each.

State Bank of India, which reported quarterly numbers that were below estimates, dropped sharply by 3 per cent. Several blue chip banking names like ICICI Bank and Axis Bank hit fresh 52-week lows in trade.

Cipla was the only Nifty stock that managed to show some resilience and ended the day with gains.

It was complete mayhem in midcap stocks with the index shedding nearly 6 per cent in trade. Jubilant Foodworks, Tata Global, Oriental Bank and Unitech were all down more than 10 per cent each.

Even the otherwise resilient sectors, including the pharma and the IT sector were not spared.

Meanwhile, markets across Europe were trading with deep cuts with the European indices trading with losses of nearly 2.5 per cent each.

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