Sensex ends down 162 points; banks fall

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The BSE Sensex ended lower on Wednesday led by a fall in banking stocks including ICICI Bank , and as sentiment was also hit by Standard & Poor's remarks that the country still faced the risk of a rating downgrade.

ICICI Bank fell 0.94 percent while State Bank of India fell 2.58 per cent.

Ahead of corporate earnings on Friday, Infosys fell 1.27 per cent while HDFC Bank fell 1.25 per cent.

The Sensex fell 0.86 pe rcent, while the 50-share Nifty lost 0.92 per cent.