Sensex, Nifty End Lower, Weighed Down By Finance Bill: Sensex Plunged 398 Points & Nifty Dipped 131.85 points

Indian markets ended today's trading session on low note, was weighed down by financials and the Government Bill. The broader indices and all the sector indices declined, except India VIX. Sensex was down by 0.69% at 57,527.10, and Nifty declined by 0. 77% to to end at 16,945.05. Indian markets ended below for the third consecutive week.

Shares of asset managers also toppled after Finance Bill proposed that investments in non equity mutual funds will now be deemed to be short-term capital gains tax at an individual's relevant tax slab. HDFC Asset Management Co fell over 3%, UTI AMC lost 2% and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC shed 2%.

IT stocks were hit, after Accenture's recent news of job cuts and its warnings of weaker client spending. Most of the stocks rose roughly 1% despite Accenture lowering its forecasts for annual revenue and profit after announcing about 19,000 job cuts, It joined other IT service providers who have warned of muted growth and tapering demand due to high interest rates and the U.S. banking turmoil.

The sector's significant exposure to U.S. and European banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry has become a cause for concern since the banking crisis erupted in the middle of this month.

Plus the securities transaction tax (STT) on the sale of options that is hiked to Rs 2,100 on a turnover of Rs 1 crore against an earlier levy of Rs 1,700, an increase of 23.5 percent also hit the indexes.

In all 463 stocks advanced and 1614 declined on NSE today.