Weighed under selling pressure from funds, Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Monday went on a roller-coster ride yet again, falling over 1,000 points to breach the crucial 8,000 level in intra-day trading, but later recovered some losses on renewed buying.

In a choppy trade, the 30-share index, which had lost over 1,000 points during the mid-session on major sell-off by funds, attracted some buying at the existing lower levels only to regain 812.17-point losses and closed at 8,509.56 level, 191.51 points down from the last week's close. It touched the day's low of 7,697.39, a level last seen on October 2005.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty dropped below 2,300 points before ending at 2524.20, still showing a loss of 59.50 points.

Marketmen said emergence of buying by domestic financial institutions and covering up of short positions by speculators at prevailing lower levels helped Sensex recover part of the lost ground.

They said a steep fall in equities drove down the rupee against the dollar and gold also fell sharply, thus leaving no other option for investors but to return to the bourses.

A remarkable recovery was seen in the realty sector, which had suffered heavy losses during the day. The realty index bounced back to close higher by 74.01 points at 1,817.28 as stocks of Unitech, Indiabulls Realestate, Omax and Akruti City closed with handsome gains.