Sensex dips below 13000 points, Nifty down by 209 points

Mumbai, Sept 18 : The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today plunged below 13000 points and lost nearly 705 points in early trading on massive selling by funds, sparked by deepening global financial crisis after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

The 30-share index, which had lost nearly 1,685 points in the last seven sessions, moved down by 704.76 points or 5.31 per cent to 12,558.14, the lowest since July 16 after all the sectoral indices dropped between two to eight per cent with realty, metals and capital goods suffering the most.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's index Nifty breached the 3800-mark and was quoted at 3799.55, down by 208.70 points.

Stockbrokers said sliding global markets on concern that more companies could succumb to the financial crisis that has already claimed Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch badly dampened the trading sentiments.

They said sentiments on the global bourses were so weak that even bailing out of insurance giant AIG by the US Federal Reserve failed to quell concerns about the financial crisis.

ANI