Sustained capital outflows took hold amid no major direction from Asian markets as they were trading mixed, tracking the Wall Street yesterday.
Infosys, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, TCS and Tata Motors were the laggards and weighed on the market.
The BSE 30-share barometer resumed slightly better, but immediately dropped to a low of 26,948.62, down over 302 points, or 1.11 per cent, over its previous close.
It later attempted recovery, but failed and was quoted at 27,059.67 at 1045 hours, a fall of 193.43 points, or 0.70 per cent. Yesterday, it jumped 373.62 points, or 1.39 per cent.
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Brokers said profit booking by participants in stocks that recorded handsome gains in yesterday's trade and a mixed trend at other Asian markets tracking overnight losses at US markets following a disappointing retail sales report dampened mood.
From Asia, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan were trading weak while from China, Hong Kong and South Korea were quoting better in their late-morning deals.
Second-line stocks attracted solid buying interest from retail investors as their indices, BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap, were trading higher by over 0.6 per cent each and outperformed the Sensex.