Sensex down 252 pts, closes at 8,840

Markets opened strong Monday and despite staying in the green throughout the morning went into a tailspin mid-afternoon to end deep in the red with a key index shedding more than 250 points to go below the psychologically important 9,000 mark once again.

There was profit booking at the higher levels, analysts said.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) finished at 8,839.87, down 252.85 points or 2.78 percent from its close Friday last week at 9,092.72 points.

The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), also showed a similar trend and closed at 2,682.90, down 72.2 points or 2.62 percent from its previous close Friday last week at 2,755.10 points.

The BSE midcap index closed at 2,846.47, down 39.29 points or 1.36 percent from its previous close Friday last week at 2,885.76 points.

The BSE smallcap too ended in the red and finished at 3,297.73, down 6.88 points or 0.21 percent from its previous close Friday last week at 3,304.61 points.

Global cues were mixed. The key index of the New York Stock Exchange closed flat Friday and the Nasdaq index closed Friday with a gain of 0.23 percent.

The Nikkei, key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended in the red Monday with a loss of 1.35 percent but the Hang Seng, key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange finished with a gain of 1.59 percent.