The Sensex after touching a low of 17,028, has recovered a bit and is now down 100 points at 17,080.
The NSE Nifty is down 37 points at 5,066.
Reliance Infrastructure has shed 2.5% at Rs 1,068. ITC and ACC have slipped nearly 2% each to Rs 264 and Rs 775, respectively.
Sterlite, HDFC and Tata Steel have declined around 1.5% each to Rs 857, Rs 2,793 and Rs 565, respectively.
ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, ONGC, TCS, Grasim and Reliance are all down over 1% each.
Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti have rallied over 3% each to Rs 1,075 and Rs 1,605, respectively.
Bharti Airtel and Hero Honda have advanced 2.3% each to Rs 282 and Rs 1,690, respectively.
Reliance Communications and Tata Motors are the other significant gainers.
The market breadth is neutral - out of 2,639 stocks traded so far, 1,276 have advanced and 1,259 have declined.