UPDATE AT 11.30 AM ON 15 SEPTEMBER

Key benchmark indices witnessed a disastrous opening spooked

byreports that the Bank of America struck a $50 billion deal to

buyUS's investment banking major Merrill Lynch. The BSE

30-shareSensex was down 643.32 points. Meanwhile, reports just

filtered inthat US investment bank Lehman Brothers is filing for Chapter

11bankruptcy. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) plunged to

52-week lowbelow Rs 1900. IT pivotals were the worst hit in the early

slide,with Satyam Computer Services plunging over 10%. All the

30-membersfrom the Sensex pack suffered losses. Asian markets

were trading lower today, 15 September 2008. Keybenchmark indices

in Taiwan and Singapore fell 4.32% and 3.18%.Most major Asian equity

markets were closed for public holidays.