MUMBAI: The market opened lower on Monday, as investors booked profits after last week's climb tracking declines in Asian shares. A dip in US consumer spending over the weekend triggered the weakness in markets overseas. Back home, inflation, which crossed 6 per cent, also weighed on sentiment.

At 10:05 am, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was down 279 points or 1.7 per cent at 16,092.63.

Biggest Sensex losers were Infosys Technologies (down 3.43%), Reliance Energy (2.97%), ICICI Bank (2.61%), Wipro (2.21%), HDFC Bank (1.93%), Jaiprakash Associates (1.81%) and State Bank of India (1.77%).

Major gainers were Cipla (up 1.38%), Bharti Airtel (1.11%), ONGC (0.8%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.04%). Market breadth, however, was positive with 447 advances and 368 declines on BSE. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty was down 75 points or 1.51 per cent at 4867.15

"We might see flat markets today with profit booking & fresh short build up at 5000-5050 levels in Nifty. The PCR has come up to 1.44, indicating a short build up is happening in put options. Call writing has been seen at 5000 PE (35%) options of Nifty," Standard Chartered - STCI Capital Market said in a note.

Asian stocks fell, sending the regional benchmarks to their biggest decline in two weeks, on concern faltering US consumer spending will hurt exports of cars, clothes and electronics. The Nikkei 225 lost 2.24 per cent, the Hang Seng shed 1.78 per cent and the Straits Times dropped 0.3 per cent.

US stock indexes fell on Friday fell as a warning from retail major - JC Penny - said profits will be affected on account of abysmal consumer confidence and as economic data spurred further signs of a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.70 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.80 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.86 per cent.