The Nifty extended its opening losses to reach its support zone and the Sensex fell around 1,000 points through midday with heavyweights dragging.
The markets tracked mixed cues from global markets and escalating Middle East tensions caused by Israel's intensifying attacks on Iranian-backed forces.
At 12:15 p.m., the Nifty was at 25,897.15, down 1.08% or 281.80 points and the Sensex was at 84,600.67, lower by 1.13% or 968 points.
On Friday, Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities, had said the strength is likely to persist as long as Nifty remains above 25,900.
According to Soni Patnaik, assistant vice president at JM Financial Services Ltd, the market is overheated and a correction is likely to come.
For Monday's session, she has recommended to avoid buying and wait for indices (Nifty and Nifty Bank) to reach support levels of 25,800 and 53,300 to look for a 'buy'.
Kush Bohra, founder of Kushbohra.com, recommends to continue staying long with a stoploss at 25,900 and 26,000. He recommends being less on quantity while adding fresh positions.
Volatility also surged with India VIX trading at 12.82 level, 7.08% higher.
Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., and Axis Bank Ltd. dragged the indices. While those of NTPC Ltd., JSW Steel Ltd., Tata Steel Ltd., Hindalco Industries Ltd., and Asian Paints Ltd. cushioned the fall.
Except Nifty Media and Nifty Metal, all sectoral indices traded lower.
The market breadth was skewed in the favour of sellers. As many as 2,227 stocks fell, 1,609 advanced, and 157 remained unchanged on the BSE.
Broader indices outperformed as BSE Midcap traded 0.28% lower and BSE Smallcap was down 0.1%.
Six out of 20 sectoral indices on the BSE rose and 14 declined with BSE Realty falling the most.
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