The BSE Sensex declined more than 270 points during the post-noon session on Tuesday because of profit booking by funds as well as retail investors in FMCG, capital goods, automobile and banking scrips amid a feeble trend in the Asian markets.

The Sensex witnessed heavy selling action from operators prior to the termination of near-month April 2011 derivatives contract on April 28.

Political fears also hit the stock market as the CBI charged Ms Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha member and daughter of the Tamil Nadu CM, Mr M. Karunanidhi, in the 2G spectrum scam.

At 12.20 p. m., the Sensex shed 270.51 points (1.38%) to trade at 19,313.80 and the broad-based Nifty declined 80.65 points (1.37%) at 5,793.85.

The scrips, which headed the volume charts comprised RIL, Infosys, SBI, Tata Steel and ICICI Bank.

The top gainers in the Sensex pack included ITC, Mah & Mah, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, RIL, L&T and TCS.

The key gainers' list consisted of Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel.

Among sectoral indices, FMCG shed 2%, capital goods dropped 1.61%, auto fell 1.39% and bankex remained down by 1.37%.

Out of 2,705 stocks traded, 921 progressed, 1,679 dropped and 105 remained unaltered.

In the morning trade, the BSE Sensex, which shed 17.06 points on Monday, declined another 106.95 points to 19,477.36.

Likewise, the Nifty dropped 32.6 points (0.5%) to 5,841.90 points.