Mumbai, Sep 16 (TIWN) Equities market was falling sharply on Friday during the afternoon trade due to heavy sell-off in IT, PSU Banks, Auto stocks following weak Asian markets on concerns of global recession, dealers said.

"In this challenging environment it would be difficult for India to sustain the decoupling from the global trend which has been a recent pattern in India. Moreover, FIIs have halted their sustained buying and have turned sellers, though this is not yet a trend," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.