Bank stocks slumped after RBI late last night announced measures to curb the rupee's decline by tightening liquidity and making it costlier for banks to access funds from the central bank.
Sensex resumed lower at 19,788.09 and dropped further to a low of 19,649.58.
It recovered later to 19,811.47 before quoting at 19,787.24 at 1030hrs, down 247.24 points of 1.23 per cent from its last close, after Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Jaipur said today that India was likely to clock over 6 per cent growth in the financial year 2013-14.
Major losers were ICICI Bank (5.26 per cent), HDFC (4.52 per cent), SBI (4.38 per cent), Larsen (3.07 per cent), HDFC Bank (2.75 per cent), Maruti (2.40 per cent) and Jindal Steel (1.88 per cent).
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 227.26 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks dropped in their early trade on concerns about an economic slowdown in China. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were down 0.1 per cent to 0.68 per cent.