Extending its losses for the second straight session on Tuesday, the benchmark Sensex plunged by 325 points in early trade on heavy sell-off by funds after the global stock markets fell sharply on recession fears.

The 30-share barometer, which had lost 252.85 points yesterday, fell by 325.39 points, or 3.54 per cent, to 8,514.48, with all the sectoral indices led by realty index registering losses up to nearly 5 per cent.

The wide-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange tanked 101.20 points, or 3.35 per cent, to 2,581.70 points.

Marketmen said Indian stocks fell due to overnight heavy losses in the US markets, with the Dow Jones index plunging 7.70 per cent, on another raft of dismal economic data which said the US had entered recession in December 2007 based on its measure of income, employment and other factors.

Asian markets fell sharply in the early trade, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipping by 4.89 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei declining by 4.60 per cent on renewed fears about the US economy.

On the domestic front, auto stocks led by Maruti Suzuki continued their slide for the second session in a row after the dismal sales data for November.

Maruti stocks fell by 2.37 per cent to Rs 874, Tata Motors lost nearly 4 per cent at Rs 126.90 and Mahindra and Mahindra plunged nearly 7 per cent at Rs 256.

Other stocks which dragged the Sensex down were Reliance Industries, ACC, Reliance Infra, RCom, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, HDFC Ltd, Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel.

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