Sensex slide continues, down 342pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 133 points at 11,072. The index touched a high of 11,143, but soon slipped into the negative zone.

A fresh round of selling dragged the index to a low of 10,576 - down 496 points from the day's high. The index is now down 342 points at 10,597.

The market breadth is fairly negative - out of 1,767 stocks traded so far, 1,468 have declined, 262 have advanced and the rest are unchanged.