The key benchmark indices remained weak in the afternoon trades today. The Sensex was down 197 points at 16,086. The Nifty dropped 59 points to trade at 4,767.

Heavy selling was seen in realty, metal and auto stocks. The realty index on the BSE plunged 4.7 per cent and the metal index fell 2.6 per cent. The auto index also lost 2.2 per cent. 

Among the Sensex stocks, DLF led the losers. The stock fell 5 per cent. RCom lost 4.8 per cent and Tata Motors was down 4 per cent.

Sun Pharma, HUL and Tata Power, however, rose more than 1.4 per cent each.

Asian stock markets fell for a third day on Thursday after a Wall Street sell-off on signs of weakness in the US housing market triggered fears about the health of the global recovery.

Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul all lost about 2 per cent or more after a US government report showed new home sales fell unexpectedly in September for the first time since March. That fueled fears the housing rebound was driven solely by government policies that are being withdrawn before the private sector recovers.