New Delhi - India shares fell nearly 4 per cent Monday on weak global cues and heavy selling by foreign institutional investors.

The 30-share sensitive Sensex index of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at 9066.70 points, down 3.8 per cent.

The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange ended the day at 2760.95 points, 3.9 per cent down.

Renewed concern about the deteriorating economic scene in the United States and shrinking factory output in Australia weighed down the markets.

There was selling across sectors with realty, metals and banking stocks the major losers.

The gloomy economic outlook was heightened with the Indian government announcing a fall in exports in December 2008, for the third month in a row.

Merchandise shipments in December fell by 1.1 per cent to 12.7 billion dollars due to global recession, the government data said.

The Federation of Indian Export Organizations has predicted 10 million job losses by March. India's export industry is heavily labour intensive with an estimated workforce of about 150 million.

The federal Reserve Bank of India recently reduced its growth estimate for the financial year ending March 31 to 7 per cent, from its earlier 7.5 to 8 per cent.

But the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted India's growth in the current financial year will be less than 6 per cent.

"We expect India's GDP to grow by only 5.6 per cent in 2008-09 compared to 9 per cent last year. India is not alone. China too appears to be heading for a sharp slowdown with economic growth expected to fall to 6 per cent in 2009," the Economist Intelligence Unit's India director Manoj Vohra said in a release. (dpa)