Mumbai: Indian shares extended losses to more than 1% on Thursday afternoon, as traders booked profits in stocks such as banks that had rallied this month.

At 2:45pm, the 30-share BSE index was down 1.13% at 16,659.08, with two-thirds of its components declining. The 50-share NSE index was down 1.2% at 4,942.20.

Indian shares were trading 0.5% lower in choppy trade in the afternoon as Asian markets reversed gains and investors locked in profits after the previous day’s rally.

Leading lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank led the losses, after they had rallied this month. The sector index shed 1.5%, but is still up 9.5% since the end of October.

State Bank was down 2% at Rs2,331 while ICICI and HDFC Bank shed 2% and 0.7% respectively.

By 11:52am, the 30-share BSE index was down 0.51% at 16,763.83, after rising 2.5% on Wednesday. Seventeen of its components declined. The 50-share NSE index was down 0.7% at 4,969.40.

The benchmark is still up 5.4% so far in November.

“There is resistance as we are moving higher, which is why the market is fluctuating but the undertone is bullish,” said Mehul Dedhia, assistant vice president of sales at Sharekhan.

Tata Steel shed as much as 3.5% after the company approved a new convertible bonds offer in exchange for an existing $875 million securities and lowered the conversion price.

“I think the company was not confident of its stock reaching that price, which means it would face a big redemption in a single year,” said Pawan Burde, sector analyst at Mumbai-based PINC Research.

“This probably reflects their concerns over growth amid the downturn in the global steel industry,” he said.

The stock was later down 2.9% at Rs511.20.

Infosys Technologies rose 0.3% to Rs2,318.40 after its business process outsourcing arm said it was in a pact to acquire US-based McCamish Systems.

In the broader market, losers outpaced gainers in a ratio of 1.1:1 on volume of 253 million shares.