Mumbai, Feb 6: Stock market continued to reel under heavy selling pressure in early afternoon trade with the benchmark Sensex trading with a loss of 624 points as fears of a possible economic recession in the US sweeped global markets.

After plunging over 727 points in early morning trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index recovered about 100 points from the day's low, but was still down by over three percent, 623.90 points, at 18,039.26 at 1200 hours.

Foreign funds were seen selling heavily in a number of blue-chip stocks, brokers said.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty was down by 188.35 points at 5,295.55 as most of the index stocks fell sharply. It had opened the day lower at 5,257.05 points.

Marketmen said selling pressure gathered momentum this morning following reports of a steep fall in global stock markets influenced by a surprise contraction in the giant US service sector, which triggered concerns that the world's largest economy may be in even worse condition than previously feared.

They said if the volatility in the market remained like this, the market might see more corrections in the coming time.