Bears ruled the roost in stock markets today with benchmark Sensex crashing by over 950 points to close below 15k level on an onslaught of selling, triggered by global gloom, in which many a heavyweight stock, including market leader Reliance Industries, crumbled.

The 30-share Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange after tumbling to a low of 14,738.27 in intra-day, finally settled at 14,809.49, a loss of 951.03 points, or 6.03 per cent, over its previous close.

The fact that the index is closing below the 15k level for the first time since August 29, 2007 indicates the roller-coaster ride the Sensex had had since October 29 when it had crossed the 20k mark.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while speaking in Parliament, said Indian stock markets are taking cues from the US and Asian markets, even though sub-prime mortgage crisis has only moderately affected flow of funds into the country.

The broad-based S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped 242.70 points, or 5.11 per cent, at 4,503.10 from its last close.

Worse, market participants expect more worldwide casualties on the back of resurgence of US credit market problems after the distress sale of ailing American bank Bear Stearns and emergency discount rate cut by US Federal Reserve.

JP Morgan Chase & Co bought Bear Stearns on Friday as the an all-stock deal for a rock bottom.

The US Fed lowered the discount rate it charges on direct loans to banks by 0.25 per cent and announced a new program to lend directly to Wall Street dealers to salvage the problems.

Both the developments augmented many fears concerning the stock markets worldwide. Meanwhile, most Asian indices ended lower in the range of 3-5 per cent.

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