Sensex crashes over 1,300 points, Nifty slides below 15,900
Domestic equity benchmark indices fell sharply on Monday tracking weak global sentiments. The 30-share BSE index opened 1300 points lower to trade below the 53,000-mark. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged more than 300 points to trade below 15,900.
Banking, financial services and IT stocks were the worst hit as the indices sat in the red.
Bank Nifty, the index that tracks the banking sector, also started trading lower after falling more opened 900 points or 2.50% below 33,600. Nifty midcap and smallcap also dropped more than 2% in the opening trade. Nifty IT was down by more than 3%.
At 10 AM, Sensex was trading 1,444 points or 2.55% lower at 52,858 while Nifty50 was down by 412 points or 2.54% to trade at 15,791.
Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank were the major laggards.
With Monday's slump, the indices declined for six out of seven sessions. Indices extended losses as high inflation in the US triggered possibilities of even more aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve. Stock exchanges in the US ended sharply lower on Friday after an eagerly awaited inflation for May jumped 1%, well above the 0.7% forecast. The year-over-year rate hit a 40-year high of 8.60%.
Earlier on Friday, Sensex had slumped over 1,000 points to sink below the 55,000-level and Nifty plunged 276.30 points to 16,201.80. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,973.95 crore, as per stock exchange data.
Rupee falls to all-time low
The rupee slipped 36 paise to its all-time low of 78.29 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, tracking the strength of the American currency overseas as investors flocked to the safe-haven currency amid an overall risk-averse sentiment.
On Friday, the rupee tumbled 19 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 77.93 against the US dollar.
READ MORE: LIC share price slides below Rs 700 apiece as anchor lock-in ends today
