The BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled 540 points and the broader Nifty slipped below the 10,300-mark in late afternoon trade Friday following heavy selling in blue chip Reliance Industries as well as financial stocks.


The 30-share Sensex, opened Friday distinctly weak at 34,563.29 and continued to slide to touch a low of 34,140.32 points (intra-day). The index was trading down 636.83 points, or 1.82 per cent at 34,142.75 at 1400 hrs. The gauge had lost 382.90 points Wednesday.


Index heavyweight Reliance Industries dropped 5 per cent to Rs 1,091.50 despite better-than-expected earnings posted by the company on Wednesday. RIL reported its highest ever quarterly net profit of Rs 9,516 crore, a 17.4 per cent rise year-on-year, for the July-September period.


Traders said Reliance Industries' pre-tax earnings from the business declined for the second quarter in a row and this triggered the heavy selling in the counter. The operator of world's largest oil refining complex however saw pre-tax earnings from the business decline for the second quarter in a row. It fell 19.6 per cent to Rs 5,322 crore as margins dipped.  -- PTI