In what is the sharpest decline in two months, Sensex and Nifty plummeted more than 3 per cent on Monday, guided by weak global trends as investors panicked over US recession fears. Foreign fund outflows also contributed to the plunge.
By 1 pm, the Sensex slumped 2,616.34 points to touch 78,365.61 in early trade while Nifty slumped 783.10 points to 23,934.60.
The wealth of Indian investors melted by Rs 9.51 lakh crore on Monday with Sensex tumbling more than 2,600 points. The market valuation of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange decreased by Rs 9,51,771.37 crore to Rs 4,47,65,174.76 crore in the morning.
Tata Motors, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, Maruti and Reliance Industries were the major losers in the Sensex basket while Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever were trading in the green.
The Nifty PSU Bank Index plunged more than 3 per cent, with all 12 public sector lenders in the index trading in red. The most impacted was Bank of India with a 5 per cent slump while others like Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India were also significantly affected. The least impacted among the PSBs was UCO Bank, which tumbled 1.8 per cent.
The Nifty Midcap 100 dipped by more than 1,944 points which translates to 3.3 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 saw 772 points dropping to record a 4.1 per cent slump.
This comes after US indices closed significantly low on Friday. Asian peers like Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were also trading in the red with Shanghai as the only major exception.
To add to the woes, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) withdrew Rs 3,310 crore from Indian markets on Friday.
Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East also led to the plunge amid fears of Iran retaliation against Israel over killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
