Indian markets were witnessing a sharp sell-off Wednesday mirroring huge losses in Chinese markets which had run-up sharply in the last 5 days. Realty metals and power stocks were the worst hit in the fall.

At 12:15 pm, Bombay Stock Exchanges Sensex was at 14937.52, down 394.42 points or 2.57 per cent. The index touched an intra-day low of 14888.41 and high of 15379.43.

National Stock Exchanges Nifty was at 4433.75, down 130.35 points or 2.86 per cent. The index touched an intra-day low of 4420.80 and high of 4573.85.

BSE Midcap Index was down 3.23 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index slipped 3.23 per cent.

BSE Realty Index fell 7.07 per cent, BSE Metal Index was down 5.97 per cent and BSE Power Index moved 3.86 per cent lower.

Significant losses in Tata Steel (-8.09%), DLF (-8%), Sterlite Industries (7.97%), Tata Motors (-6.98%) and Reliance Infrastructure (-6.61%) pulled the Sensex lower.

Tata Consultancy Services up 0.29 per cent was the lone gainer in the 30-share index.

Market breadth on BSE turned extremely weak with 1704 declines outnumbering 703 advances.

Asian markets were reacting to the fall in Chinese market. Shanghai Composite recovered some losses after falling over 7 per cent. Investors booked profits across the board led by commodities stocks on speculations that valuations had run ahead of fundamentals. Shanghai Composite had run up over 7 per cent in the past 5 days.

At 12:20 pm, Shanghai Composite was down 5.21 per cent, Hang Seng fell 3.55 per cent and Strait Times declined 1.54 per cent. Nikkei 225 was up 0.26 per cent.