The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 242  points at 12,284 on the back of negative cues from the global markets. The NSE Nifty is down 216 points at 3,602.

The US markets on Friday tumbled despite the House of Representatives clearing the $700 bn revised bailout package. As a result of which Asian markets were down 3-4% on an average at the opening bell.

Eventually, most of the asian markets like Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Shanghai Composite and Seoul Composite indices ended with losses in the range of 4-6% each.

Bank home, the index too witnessed unabated sellling and tumbled below yet another psychological mark of 12,000, to a low of 11,733 - down 793 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 725 points (5.8%) at 11,802.

In the process, the index has shed 9.6% (1,254 points) in the last two trading sessions, and is down a whopping 41.8% (8,484 points) so far this year.

The BSE Realty index slumped almost 10% (330 points) to 3,000. The Metal index plunged 9.3% (780 points) to 7,636. The Capital Goods and Power indices tumbled over 7% each to 9,495 and 2,066, respectively.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,677 stocks traded, 2,369 declined, 281 advanced and 27 were unchanged on Monday.

BIG LOSERS...

Sterlite slumped over 15% to Rs 335. Reliance Infrastructure tumbled 14% to Rs 638, and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] plunged 13.5% to Rs 100.

Tata Steel [Get Quote] crashed 11% to Rs 350. DLF, Tata Power [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] dropped around 10% each to Rs 302, Rs 798 and Rs 300, respectively.

Grasim [Get Quote] shed 9.5% at Rs 1,591. BHEL crumbled 7.5% to Rs 1,449.

Reliance, Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro slipped around 6.5% each to Rs 1,642, Rs 246 and Rs 1,083, respectively.

Wipro [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] dropped over 6% each to Rs 320 and Rs 294, respectively.

TCS [Get Quote], HDFC Bank [Get Quote], HDFC and ITC declined around 5.5% each to Rs 619, Rs 1,202, Rs 1,965 and Rs 180, respectively.

Infosys [Get Quote] and Tata Motors [Get Quote] were down over 5% each at Rs 1,318 and Rs 314, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 381 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 244 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 141 crore), ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 119 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 117.70 crore).

Debutant 20 Microns led the volume chart with trades of around 1.30 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.06 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.04 crore), Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (71 lakh) and Jaiprakash Associates (59 lakh).