At 1:20 pm, the benchmark Sensex was seen down by 427 points or 2.66% at 15,637.93, while Nifty draped in red by 118 points or 2.46% at 4,694.15.

The recent level was last seen in November 2009.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, all sectors entered under the red zone, the sectors which registered a steep fall were Teck (2.99%), Oil & Gas (2.98%), Bankex (2.90%), Metal (2.65%) and Power (2.56%).

And, on the National Stock Exchange, the only company found trading over the positive side was Rcom, up by 0.93%.

The top losers on the NSE were IDFC (5.43%), Bharti Airtel (5.27%), HDFC Bank (4.92%), Sesa Goa (4.77%) and JP Associates (4.34%).

Globally, the situation looked grim, with all the major indices of Asia seen drowning into losses.

China's Shanghai was seen down by 0.73%, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell by 0.40%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 1.85%.

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