The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) was 194 points down at 10,018 at 1.45 pm.
Updated at 6:00 pm
MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex crashed below 10,000-point mark to close 256.16 points down at 9,957.32 on Tuesday on massive selling by foreign funds and retail investors.
The 30-share index had touched a low of 9884.89 points in early trading.
The Sensex overcame initial weakness and was hovering around the 10,000-point level, but renewed selling in the last 30 minutes of trading pushed the index to a four-month low of 9,957.32 - a net fall of 256.16 points from Monday 's close.
This was the first time since February 17 that the Sensex closed below the 10,000-point mark. It touched a high of 12,671.11 on May 11.
The NSE's S&P CNX Nifty also fell sharply by 79.35 points or 2.63 per cent to 2,937.10 from previous close of 3,016.65.
Earlier, the market had regained some lost ground after touching the day's low of 9,884.89 on fairly heavy purchases in the form of shortcovering in the Futures and Options segment after mid-session.
Investors were visibly confused over the dramatic crash at the fag end, during which the market witnessed a deluge of sell orders with buyers few and far between.
The world-wide gloom largely attributed to concerns over higher inflation, upward spiral in oil prices as also indications of further hikes in the US Federal rates compounded the negative sentiment across the sectors, market players said.
Key global indices suffered a sharp setback. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its third-largest decline of the year on Monday as economic worries rattled investors.
Only three of 30 Sensex shares managed to buck the trend. A sharp rise in prices of petrol and diesel also had an adverse impact on the market sentiment.
Underlining 9,600-9,700 as the major support level for Sensex, analysts felt the market might undergo a long-term downward correction once the support level is broken.
The volume of business moderately improved but was still low at Rs 3,010.42 crore. RIL remained the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs 287.56 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 131.77 crore), REL Capital (Rs 111.61 crore), SBI (Rs 111.15 crore) and L&T (Rs 74.32 crore).
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