Mumbai, Sept 15 : The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex fell by 772.62 points this morning following the U. S. investment bank Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dipped below 4,000-mark by falling 242.40 points after banking stocks led by ICICI and HDFC Bank slipped sharply.

Realty stocks are among the worst hit. The Realty index has gone down by over 7 per cent. IT and power stocks have also plunged sharply by 5.25 per cent to 6 per cent.

London - Britain's Barclays bank, which had been among potential bidders for Lehman Brothers, said Monday it ruled out a bid which would not have been in the interest of shareholders.

In a statement in London, Barclays said, "We confirm that Barclays considered a combination with Lehman Brothers and did not proceed because it was not possible to conclude a transaction in the best interests of Barclays shareholders."

Berlin - Germany's Finance Ministry, central bank and federal financial supervisory authority said Monday the German financial markets would be able to cope with the fall-out from the collapse of the US bank, Lehman Brothers.

In a joint statement, the three said the commitments of German financial institutions to Lehman Brothers Holding were "manageable."

The Finance Ministry, the central bank, or Bundesbank, and the supervisory authority, or BaFin, said they remained in close contact with the corresponding institutions in other countries and were "watching very closely" further developments.

The mood was extremely bearish on Indian stock exchanges in today’s session. Heavy selling action was witnessed across midcap and smallcap sectors. Both fell over 5% each.

Today, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened at 13,666.28, down 334.53 points, as against its last closure at 14,000.81, down 483.02 points, on Friday (Sep 12).

All stocks have been hammered since morning. Realty sector, which plunged more than 7%, was among the worst hit. On the other hand, IT, power and banking stocks plunged 7.29%, 6.85% and 6.15% respectively.

At 12.05 p.m., the 30-share index Sensex stood at 13,256.46, down 744.35 points, after hitting a high of 13,666.28 and a low of 13,150.81.

New Delhi - Indian stocks tumbled in morning trading on Monday as the benchmark Sensex plunged 5.6 per cent on nervous selling by funds and investors on reports that US investment banker Lehman Brothers appeared ready to file for bankruptcy.

The 30-share-sensitive index was trading at 13,210 levels, a loss of 786 points, or a 5.61 per cent at 11:30 local time (0600 GMT), over an hour after opening.

Realty, capital goods, oil and pharma stocks declined sharply.

Washington - The embattled investment bank Lehman Brothers was expected to file for bankruptcy before the start of trading later Monday, hours after financial services firm Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America.

Negotiations throughout the weekend failed to produce a buyer for the venerable Lehman Brothers, leading to the bankruptcy plans, the Washington Post reported early Monday on its website.