The Sensex opened almost flat at 13,110 - up eight points, touched a high of 13,114, and soon slipped into the negative zone owing to weak global cues.

Asian markets were weak this morning on uncertanaity over the $700 billion US bailout plan. Later on, the European markets, too, opened on a weak note, and US futures also indicated a negative start from Dow and Nasdaq.

Bank home, banking, realty and technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling, as the index tumbled to a new calender year low of 12,403 - down 699 points from the previous close.

However, some buying towards the end helped the Sensex recoup some of its losses, and finally end at 12,596 - down 506 (3.9%) points. In the process, the index has now shed 8% (1,097 points) in the last three trading sessions.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,684 stocks traded, 2,282 declined, 361 advanced and 41 were unchanged on Monday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] slumped around 12% each to Rs 493 and Rs 107, respectively.

Satyam [Get Quote] plunged over 9% to Rs 293, and TCS [Get Quote] tumbled 8.4% to Rs 620.

Tata Power [Get Quote] shed 7% at Rs 918. Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Infrastructure slipped over 6.5% each to Rs 495 and Rs 794, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] and Ranbaxy [Get Quote] declined over 6% each to Rs 326 and Rs 256, respectively.

DLF and Larsen & Toubro dropped around 5% each to Rs 351 and Rs 2,345, respectively.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] and NTPC slipped over 4.5% each to Rs 356 and Rs 166, respectively.

Infosys [Get Quote], Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and HDFC Bank [Get Quote] were down nearly 4% each to Rs 1,392, Rs 747 and Rs 1,200, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 309 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 299.80 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 295.40 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 157.20 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 134.70 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.42 crore shares followed by IFCI (89.90 lakh), Chambal Fertilisers (71.70 lakh), Jaiprakash Associates (63.80 lakh) and ICICI Bank (58.40 lakh).