The Indian market struggled to hold its opening gains as it closed at day's low, pulled down by a weak performance from the financial sector. The Nifty Bank slipped a significant 863 points from its highs, leading the Sensex to close 344 points lower at 57,556, and the Nifty 71 points lower at 16,972. The Nifty Bank fell 360 points to 39,052, while the midcap index managed to rise by 22 points to 29,971.

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The market saw Reliance Industries fall for the fifth straight session, with the stock hitting a 52-week low. Along with RIL, HDFCs and ICICI Bank, and Bharti Airtel were the biggest drags on the Nifty, while all Nifty Bank constituents, except Kotak Bank, closed in the red.

On the positive side, Adani stocks witnessed a sharp recovery intra-day, with eight of the ten stocks closing higher. GMR surged 5 percent as the board met on March 17 to consider fund raising, and Page Industries rose 3 percent on a positive brokerage note, with MS setting a target of 44,500. Coforge closed off lows as the company saw no impact from its US bank exposure.

Sharp fall in crude oil prices helped stocks like Asian Paints and Berger Paints gain, but overall market breadth remained in favor of declines, with the Adv-Decline ratio at 3:4. The BSE companies erased market cap of more than Rs 50,000 crore indicating the overall negative sentiment in the market.

Also read: Stock Market Highlights: Nifty 50 ends below 17,000, Sensex down 300 points