The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Wednesday with the Sensex falling over 450 points to trade below 60,000-mark and Nifty 50 index dropping below its important psychological level of 17,950 on the back of weak cues from global markets. Asian stock markets were becalmed on Wednesday as surges in oil and Chinese factory prices added to worries that a hot U.S. inflation reading could renew pressure on policymakers to lift interest rates. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan and Japan’s Nikkei each dropped 0.2 per cent in and Overnight on Wall Street a long rally paused, with the Nasdaq logging its first fall in a dozen sessions.

As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was down 431 points to 60,003 and Nifty 50 index fell 108 points to 17,936.

Overnight, world stock indexes slid on Tuesday, bringing a multi-day rally of record closing highs to a wrap as profit-taking and worries over ongoing inflation fueled a broad selloff.

Back home, selling pressure was so intense that all the 15 sector gauges, barring the measures of pharma and healthcare shares, were trading lower.