Sensex nosedives 500 points; Nifty cracks 8,400 mark

Continuing its slide, the benchmark BSE Sensex in mid-session tanked over 500 points and the NSE Nifty cracked the 8,400-mark after Chinese shares extended rout and fears of Greek eurozone exit hit trading sentiment.

Reflecting steep fall in blue-chips, the 30-share index which dipped below the crucial 28,000-mark in early trade, continued to slide and tumbled by 504.63 points or 1.79% to 27,667.06 during mid-session, with all the sectoral indices led by metal and auto, falling up to 4.14%. 

The NSE Nifty also succumbed to all-round selling and cracked the 8,400-mark by falling 162.65 points or 1.91% to 8,348.15. 

Besides, fresh weakness in the rupee which depreciated by 17 paise to Rs 63.63 (intra-session) against the dollar too dampened trading sentiments, brokers said. 

Sentiment was badly hit following a rout in other Asian markets with a near 7% crash in Shanghai despite additional measures announced by the government to shore up to the tumbling market, they added. 

Japan's Nikkei tumbled 3.14%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 5.97% and Shanghai Composite index was down almost 6% after falling over 8% in early trade.

Major losers that dragged down the key indices were Vedanta (8.83 pc), Hindalco (6.20 pc), Tata Steel (3.90 pc), BHEL (3.32 pc), HDFC (2.46 pc), GAIL (2.20 pc), Infosys (2.11 pc), Coal India (2.05 pc), SBI (1.98 pc), M&M (1.90 pc), ITC (1.85 pc), Cipla (1.69 pc), Bharti Airtel (1.68 pc) and ICICI Bank (1.62 pc).