The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 182 points at 16,468 on global weakness.

Unabated selling in the banking, metal and capital goods stocks saw the index tumble to a low of 16,300 - down 349 points from its previous close.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 301 points at 16,348.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,758 stocks traded, 667 advanced, 2,043 declined and 48 were unchanged on Monday.

The NSE Nifty settled with a loss of 71 points at 4,875.

Index Shakers. . .

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] tumbled 5.6% to Rs 224, while Ambuja Cements plunged 5.4% to Rs 97.

BHEL and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] declined over 5% each to Rs 1,656 and Rs 543, respectively.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] slipped 4.3% to Rs 827. HDFC [Get Quote] was trading at Rs 2,573 - down 3.9%.

Maruti [Get Quote] shed 3.8% to Rs 760. ITC was down 2.7% to Rs 206.

Grasim [Get Quote] dropped 3.5% to Rs 2,209. Hindalco [Get Quote], Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Infrastructure declined over 3.3% each to Rs 186, Rs 2,750 and Rs 1,249, respectively.

Tata Steel [Get Quote] dipped 2.4% to Rs 875. SBI [Get Quote] and Cipla dropped over 2.2% to Rs 1,538 and Rs 199, respectively.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] was down 2.1% to Rs 624. Hindustan Unilever and ACC lost around 2% each to Rs 231 and Rs 655, respectively.

DLF, HDFC Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other major losers.

...And The Movers

Infosys [Get Quote] surged 3.3% to Rs 1,886. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] gained 3.1% at Rs 863.

TCS [Get Quote] advanced 2.7% to Rs 959.

Most Active Counters

Cairn India [Get Quote] led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 180.52 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 148.18 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 145.46 crore), Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] (144.40 crore) and Reliance Power (Rs 142.14 crore).

Ispat Industries [Get Quote] topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.70 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.11 crore), Aishwarya Telecom (86 lakh), Spice Telecom (80 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (65 lakh).