Sensex plunges below 8,000 mark for first time in three years

Mumbai, Oct 27 : Indian stock markets crashed on Monday, with the benchmark Sensex plunging below the psychological 8,000 level in afternoon trading.

Tracking weak global trend, the benchmark Sensex lost over 750 points to hit an over three-year low of 7,939 in afternoon trade on fresh selling by funds.

At 12:52 p.m., the 30-share index, which fell by nearly 2,000 points in the past three sessions, slid by another 762.05 points or 8.76 percent at 7,939.02, a level last seen on November 2, 2005.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange's Nifty also dipped below 2,400 points level and lost 255.50 points, or 9.89 percent, at 2328.50.

Selling pressure gathered momentum on the domestic stock markets largely due to meltdown in other Asian bourses, traders said.

Major losers, which pulled the Sensex down, were Grasim Industries, HDFC Ltd, State Bank of India, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Power and Wipro.

Bucking the trend, the country's leading realty firm Unitech Ltd, which witnessed a free-fall in its share and plunged by over 51 percent on Friday, staged strong comeback after the company said it is seeking a probe by government and market regulator SEBI into its scrip's fall.

DLF Ltd, country's biggest realty developer company, also regained strength on emergence of low level buying and traded nearly three percent higher at Rs 213.90.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 5.17 percent, Nikkei shed 0.59 percent, while South Korean shares were down four percent in early trade.

ANI