The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Monday lost over 227 points in opening trade as foreign funds pressed fresh selling in line with weak global markets.
The 30-share barometer, which had gained 187.96 points in previous trading session on Friday, slipped by 227.24 points to 9,197.00 points all the sectoral indices led by realty, trading in negative territory with losses up to 7.91 per cent.
The 50-share National Stock Exchange Nifty tumbled by 75.80 points to 2,799.00 in early trade.
Selling pressure largely emerged in tandem with weakening global markets on reports that the US economy shrank at its fastest pace in 27 years.
Stocks of the country's largest realty and developers firm, DLF Ltd, suffered the most on all-round selling after the company's net earnings dipped by 68.72 per cent in the third quarter.
DLF Ltd's stocks crashed by 11.63 per cent to Rs 156.70 after dipping to Rs 141 at the outset.
Reliance Industries' stocks, however, continued to rise and gained another nearly two per cent at Rs 1,352.20 after the Bombay High Court allowed the company to sell gas from the KG basin at the government-approved price of USD 4.20 per mmBtu as an interim measure, while reserving judgment on a case brought by Anil Ambani-run RNRL.
However, shares of Bharti Airtel, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC Ltd, Reliance Infra and RCom were under pressure and dragged down the Sensex.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell by 2.41 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei was down 1.67 per cent in early trade.
