Mumbai: The continued fall in global equities and currencies on Thursday had a negative impact on Indian market as the benchmark BSE Sensex plunged by 324 points to 27,607.82, while the prospects of the US Fed raising rates soon too hit sentiment.
Asian markets were mostly in the red with Shanghai Composite index falling by 3.42%, while European markets were off up to 1.24% in their morning trade.
Rupee dropping to almost two-year low of 65.50 against the dollar also weighed, brokers said.
Minutes of the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed the apex bank is inching closer to the first interest rate increase in nearly a decade.
“Continuous fall in commodity prices, rupee weakness, sell-off by foreign portfolio investors… ” said Gaurav Jain, Director at Hem Securities.
Meanwhile, brent crude fell by 1.59% to $46.41 a barrel mark in the global market.
The 30-share BSE index after resuming a shade higher, slipped into the negative zone and continued to decline. As selling intensified, the index hit a low of 27,564.16 before settling at 27,607.82, down 323.82 points or 1.16%.
Of the 30-share Sensex pack, 25 ended lower.
The 50-issue Nifty slipped below 8,400 level by tumbling 122.40 points or 1.44% its biggest single-day percentage fall since July 27, to close at 8,372.75.
Intra-day, it hovered between 8,501.35 and 8,359.75.
Vedanta lost most among Sensex and Nifty stocks and tumbled 4% to Rs 98.50, followed by Axis Bank.
RIL, BHEL, Tata Steel, GAIL, SBI, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, Coal India, L&T, ONGC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto were among the biggest BSE losers.
Sector-wise, BSE realty index suffered the most by falling 4.13%, followed by metal (2.39%), banking (2.33%), IT (2.27%), PSU (2.04%), infra (1.90%), power (1.84%), consumer durables (1.83%) and capital goods (1.82%).
Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 423.72 crore on Wednesday.