The Sensex has recovered partially from the day's low of 16,210, and is now down 369 points at 16,485. The NSE Nifty is down 111 points at 4,894.

The markets continue to trade in the red, albeit off the lows of the day. The indices had tumbled after Dubai's government-owned investment company Dubai World sought a restructuring of its debt amounting to $59 billion (35bn). The company was hit hard by the global credit crunch and recession.

The Sensex is now quoting at 16,350, weaker by 504 points, and the Nifty is at 4,849, down 156 points, with realty, metals and banking stocks taking a hard knock.

The Asian markets continue to trade down anywhere between 2% and 4%.

And the European markets have opened weak. The FTSE is 56 points down at 5137,  DAX has weakened 69 points at 5132 and the CAC has shed 42 points at  3636.

The major Sensex losers are Jaiprakash Associates (weaker by 6% at Rs 207), DLF (shed 5.6% at Rs 334) and ICICI Bank (lost 5.6% at Rs 816). L&T, Sterlite and SBI were the other major losers.

There are no gainers on the Sensex.

The market breath is weak. Out of 2,685 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 321 advancing stocks as against 2,320 declines.