The Sensex, which recovered some of its losses, continued to trade in the red because of Euro debt crisis.

Metal scrips were hammered badly accompanied by real estate, PSU, oil & gas, capital goods and power.

At 02:38 p. m., the Sensex was trading 328.99 points down at 16,788.70, while the Nifty stood at 5,035.95, down 99.55 points.

On global front, European scrips declined as fear lingered that the region's growing debt crisis will suppress the worldwide economic recovery. US futures also dropped.

The top losers list comprised RIL, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and L&T.

Reliance Communications topped the gainers list followed by ACC, HDFC Bank, HUL and Wipro.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Reliance Communications (4.04%), and ACC (0.77%).

The BSE Mid and small caps outperformed their larger counterparts shedding 1.25% and 1.37% respectively.

Among sectoral indices, the Metal index shed 539.69 points, followed by the Oil & Gas index, which declined 187.87 points and Capital Goods index remained down by 235.64 points.

The overall breadth of the stock market was negative with 765 advances against 1,952 declines.