Mumbai, Aug 8: The mayhem in the global financial markets, triggered by downgrade of the US creditworthiness, hit the Indian stocks hard today and sent the BSE Sensex spiralling down 316 points to below the 17,000-level for the first time in 14 months.
Although the Sensex partly recovered intra-day losses of nearly 550 points, it still lost 315.69 points and closed at 16,990.18 - the lowest level since June 10, 2010. As a result, the market lost nearly Rs 1,00,000 crore in value in a single day—which has taken the total loss in past five trading sessions to an estimated Rs 5,00,000 crore.
The losses, measured in terms of decline in value of all listed stocks, were as high as Rs 2 lakh crore when the Sensex had plunged to the day's lowest level.
The Bombay Stocks Exchange 30-share index, Sensex, has dropped by more than 1,300 points in the past five trading sessions, in line with a massive meltdown in markets across the world.
In the first trading session after global credit ratings agency S&P downgraded the long-term creditworthiness of the US from top-notch ‘AAA' level on Friday evening, the Indian markets opened on a weak note and the Sensex dropped more than 500 points within minutes.
Weak cues from the Asian markets added to the woes, but a positive opening in European markets and bargain buying at lower levels helped the market recover some losses by the early afternoon trade.
At one point, the Sensex was down only 58 points, having recovered most of the early morning losses, when it had fallen to 16,759.45 points. PTI
