Indian stocks plunged in early trade today mirroring losses in overseas markets. The Sensex was trading at 13,899, down 271 points. The Nifty fell 2 per cent to 4,117.

“Though the markets are likely to go down, the Nifty is unlikely to fall below 4,000 levels,” said T S Harihar, Senior Vice President, ICICI Securities.

Realty, metals and capital goods stocks were under severe selling pressure. The BSE realty index dropped 3.5 per cent. The metal index on the BSE fell 3 per cent and the BSE capital goods index shed 2.9 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, Sterlite Industries was the biggest loser in early trade. The stock fell 5.3 per cent. Tata Steel, JP Associates and L&T were the other main losers in the group.

Index heavyweight RIL was also trading 1.5 per cent lower.

In US markets, major stock indices skidded 2 per cent on Tuesday as crude fell for the fifth straight day. The Dow fell 161.27, or 1.9 percent, to 8,163.60. It was the lowest finish for the blue chips since April 28.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 17.69, or 2 percent, to 881.03, its lowest finish since May 1. The Nasdaq composite index lost 41.23, or 2.3 percent, to 1,746.17, the lowest close since May 27.

Asian markets were trading sharply lower today following losses in US markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, China’s Shanghai Composite and Japan’s Nikkei 225 were down more than 1.7 per cent each.

(With AP inputs)