It was another free fall session on Wall Street. Stocks suffer biggest ever decline this year despite Fed Chairman publicly supporting a fiscal stimulus plan.

Stocks on Wall Street suffered their worst ever losses so far this year. Merrill's larger than expected losses this quarter, lower housing starts triggered the slump in US stocks.

Stocks close deep in the red. Slide begins after news of Merrill's $ 9.8 billion loss this quarter. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment on fiscal stimulus plan could not stem sell off. White House also supports idea of govt package to jump start economy. Stocks also hurt sharply lower on Philly Fed indicating contraction of manufacturing in the region.

Housing industry is accelerating last year's pullback and there was new home construction cut of 25%. It is the biggest 1-year decline in housing construction in almost 3 decades. AMD losses were less than Wall Street expectations. IBM betters Wall Street expectations by 12 cents.

The Dow slipped 306.95 points, or 2.46%, at 12,159.21. The S&P 500 index fell 39.95 points, or 2.91%, closing at 1,333.25. The Nasdaq plunged 47.69 points, or 1.99%, to 2,346.90.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed:

Name Infosys Sify Rediff.com India Satyam Wipro ICICI Bank HDFC Bank MTNL VSNL Dr Reddy's Lab Tata Motors Patni Computer Sterlite Ind

Symbol INFY SIFY REDF SAY WIT IBN HDB MTE VSL RDY TTM PTI SLT

Price 38.66 4.48 9.64 21.53 12.49 62.70 116.95 8.87 30.00 16.96 17.96 13.87 22.27

Change 0.02 -0.02 -0.36 0.02 -0.04 -3.55 -6.51 -0.46 -0.98 -0.01 -0.13 -0.61 -0.12

Change% 0.05% -0.44% -3.60% 0.09% -0.32% -5.36% -5.27% -4.93% -3.16% -0.06% -0.72% -4.21% -0.54%

Volume 5,557,585 215,243 138,648 1,355,388 911,916 4,327,912 873,873 284,346 598,000 180,900 1,023,194 88,200 2,016,054

High 39.27 4.62 10.43 22.04 12.74 68.00 128.18 9.27 32.51 17.08 18.70 14.32 23.29

Low 37.79 4.46 9.64 21.10 12.15 62.10 115.22 8.64 29.60 16.67 17.86 13.84 22.05