Falling for the third straight session, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange lost 104 points, to 17,370, in early trade, amid profit-booking, on Thursday. Dropping further, the Sensex stood 253 points, or 1.5 percent in the red, at 17,222, a short while ago. Stock markets in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan were down by between 0.5 percent and 1 percent. While the bourses in Japan, South Korea and China were up by between 0.1 percent and 1 percect, today. Over on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed 1.1 per cent lower, overnight.