Mumbai: A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets nosedived to end about 387 points lower than its previous close. Among the sectors that bore the bulk of the selling brunt were realty, metal and banking. The chart showing the 52 week performance of Sensex is on the left. The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex opened lower by more than 150 points. Later, it came under hectic selling pressure after unveiling of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) quarterly monetary policy, which asked banks to park more money in government securities and raised projections for inflation. The barometer finally closed the day down by 387.10 points to 16,353.40, the biggest one-day fall since August 17. Banking stocks were battered after RBI increased the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) by 100 basis points to 25 percent. SBI lost 4.45 percent to 2,202.95, ICICI Bank by 6.11 percent to 836.25, HDFC Bank by 1.01 percent to 1,670.85 and Housing Development Finance by 0.38 percent to 2,756. The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also fell sharply by 124.20 points to close at 4,846.70 points. While 23 Sensex stocks closed with losses, seven closed higher. However, all sectoral indices ended in the negative territory. Blue-chips RIL, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Infosys, DLF, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries, RCOM and Bharti Airtel also took a severe beating. Selling pressure was rampant across markets, with the BSE midcap index ending 3.69 percent lower and the BSE smallcap index 4.42 percent down.