Sensex southbound

The benchmark Sensex stayed below the 18,000 mark with the Nifty struggling hard to get back above the 5,400 level. Fall across the globe due to growth worries dented the sentiment in India as well.

Anil Manghnani of Modern Shares & Stock Brokers says in the worst-case scenario Nifty can hit 5,325 levels, in the extreme short term. "There is a possibility of retesting 5,200, which opens up if Dow continues to slip," he says.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 17,898.88, down 211.01 points and the 50-share NSE Niftyslipped 63.60 points to 5,392.95 on the back of fall in 38 shares.

Heavyweight L&T has not showing any sign of recovery - it topped the list among losers, falling over 4.5%.