Sensex crashed nearly 541 points on the BSE on emergence of selling by foreign as well as domestic funds, triggered by weak global trend.
MUMBAI: The benchmark Sensex crashed nearly 541 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday on emergence of selling by foreign as well as domestic funds, triggered by weak global trend.
The Sensex, which had been rapidly moving up in last few trading session, suffered the most in almost four months after concern that a worsening US housing downturn will curb growth in the world's biggest economy prompted investors to shun equities.
The Sensex shed 541.74 points, or 3.43 per cent to 15,234.57, after touching an intra-day low of 15,159.68. This is the fourth biggest fall ever for the index and biggest since April 2 this year in absolute value terms.
Twenty-seven of the 30 stocks on the bourse were in red.
In a similar fashion, National Stock Exchange index Nifty dropped by 174.60 points, or 3.78 per cent to 4,445.20, after touching an intra-session low of 4424.25 points and a high of 4618.90.
In the US, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor's 500 Index fell the most since February, while the FTSE 100's biggest drop in four years led declines across Europe.
Ripples of the global trend was felt this morning when Asian stock markets opened with hefty losses and stocks in steel, cement and banking segment remained prominent losers.
On BSE, nation's most valued firm Reliance Industries fell by Rs 74.55 at Rs 1,866.45 while the country's second-largest lender ICICI Bank Ltd dropped Rs 30.85 to 914.25. The two stocks account for about a quarter of the index's weight.
Among other major falls, IT sector bellwether and the Sensex heavyweight Infosys Technologies dropped by Rs 27.15 at Rs 2,007.80.
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