The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 379 points at 11,316 on the back of negative cues from the overseas markets amid rising fears of a significant slowdown in the global economy.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq plunged over 500 points and 100 points, respectively. Among the Asian markets - Nikkei plummeted 9.4% to 9,203. Hang Seng tumbled over 8% to 15,432.

The Straits Times, Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted indices were down around 6% each at 2,034, 1,287 and 5,206, respectively.

Back home, the index after a weak start slipped to lower levels and touched a low of 10,741 - down 575 points from the day's open - on resuming trade after the sun outage break. The index, however, staged a smart recovery from lower levels on the back of renewed buying interest in select beaten down stocks.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 367 points at 11,328. Wednesday being the last day of sun outage, the index thus recorded a loss of 16.5% (2,242 points) during the period (from September 24, 2008 till Wednesday). The NSE Nifty ended at 3,513, down 93 points.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,652 stocks traded, 2,164 declined, 442 advanced and the rest were unchanged on Wednesday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] slumped almost 10% to Rs 91. Wipro [Get Quote] plunged nearly 8% to Rs 282.

Sterlite and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] tumbled over 6.5% each to Rs 293 and Rs 454, respectively.

SBI [Get Quote] shed 6% at Rs 1,322. Tata Steel [Get Quote], Tata Motors [Get Quote], Satyam [Get Quote], ITC and TCS [Get Quote] dropped over 5% each to Rs 338, Rs 300, Rs 265, Rs 166 and Rs 547, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever shed 4.5% at Rs 238. Hindalco [Get Quote], Larsen & Toubro and Infosys [Get Quote] slipped around 4% each to Rs 91, Rs 967 and Rs 1,254, respectively.

HDFC [Get Quote] and ACC dropped nearly 3.5% each to Rs 1,889 and Rs 571, respectively. ONGC [Get Quote] declined nearly 3% to Rs 964.

Grasim [Get Quote] was down 2.7% at Rs 1,575. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], BHEL, HDFC Bank and Reliance Infrastructure were down around 2% each at Rs 733, Rs 1,467, Rs 1,106 and Rs 638, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] soared 9% to Rs 279 on news that the US court has withdrawn motion against the company.

Tata Power [Get Quote] surged 4.8% to Rs 805. Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti [Get Quote] rallied 2.7% each to Rs 486 and Rs 689, respectively.

DLF gained 2% at Rs 309.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 434.75 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 287.25 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 252 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 209.60 crore) and SBI (Rs 152.25 crore).

Jaiprakash Associates led the volume chart with trades of around 2.24 crore shares followed by Reliane Natural Resources (1.26 crore), GVK Power (1.22 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (78.25 lakh) and IFCI (70.65 lakh).