Sensex drops 500 points

MUMBAI: Equities opened sharply lower Monday as investors sold stocks tracking declines in markets overseas ( Watch ). At 10:05 am, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was down 552 points or 3.14 per cent at 17,027.20 ITC (down 5.52%), ICICI Bank (4.03%), BHEL (3.82%), Bharti Airtel (3.46%), Grasim Industries (3.41%), Wipro (3.37%) and State Bank of India (3.07%) were under pressure.

There were no losers in the 30-share index. The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was down 156 points or 2.96 per cent at 5069.00. Asian stocks dropped the most in almost two weeks, almost erasing last month's gains, on deepening concerns credit losses at financial companies will increase and the US economy is headed for a recession. The Nikkei 225 lost 3.82 per cent, the Hang Seng shed 2.63 per cent and the Straits Times slipped 2.83 per cent.

US stocks plunged on Friday after losses by American International Group shook up Wall Street and poor results from Dell rocked the tech sector. The Dow fell 315.79, or 2.51 per cent, to 12,266.39, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 37.05, or 2.71 percent, to 1,330.63, and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 60.09, or 2.58 percent, to 2,271.48.