Equity benchmark indices extended losses during early hours on Monday tracking weak global cues with small and midcap stocks suffering losses.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 268 points at 38,069 while the Nifty 50 slipped 73 points to 11,346. At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty bank, finance service, FMCG and realty in the red.
Among stocks, HDFC dropped 3.3 per cent while Bajaj Finserv slipped 3.02 per cent. HDFC Bank was down 2.8 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.5 per cent and Coal India 2.2 per cent.
However, mining major Vedanta gained 4.4 per cent while Yes Bank was up 3.2 per cent. The others which showed gains were Tata Motors, Maruti and Bharti Infratel.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks fell as investors were wary of an aggressive interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve and heightened tensions in the Middle East after Iran's seizure of a British tanker lifted crude oil prices.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 per cent while the Nikkei fell 0.3 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.1 per cent, the Hang Seng dropped 0.9 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI shed 0.1 per cent.