Mumbai: Growing global growth worries spooked markets Thursday with Sensex plunging 350 points to end below 26,000 mark after two months and Nifty slumping 116 points to sub 7,800 level on across-the-board selling in the last hour of trade.
Sustained capital outflows amid weak Asian closing and lower European opening on the back of overnight fall on Wall Street on concerns over global economic growth scenario weighed negatively on sentiment.
Besides, Indian rupee depreciated to 61.9 levels against US dollar on risk-aversion.
Selling was so strong across Indian stocks that all 12 sectoral indices closed with losses of up to 4.25 percent with consumer durables, power, metal, auto, capital goods, oil&gas and IT sectors taking the lead in the downslide.
Overall, 26 out of 30 Sensex-based scrips closed in the red while ITC, Coal India, Gail and Cipla ended in the green.
"Growth fears, falling inflation and disappointing US economic data has sent shares falling across Europe. Indian markets are afraid about the withdrawal of stimulus by US Fed," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior VP, Bonanza Portfolio.
The 30-share BSE Sensex resumed lower but tried to recover as it logged a high of 26,462.08. However, it soon fell in last one-and-half-hour of trade and ended at 25,999.34, a fall of 349.99 points or 1.33 per cent. This is its weakest closing since 25,918.95 on August 13, 2014.
Overall, more than 2,100 stocks closed down while about 750 shares ended higher on BSE, wiping out a chunk of investor wealth.
The 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also dipped by 115.80 points, or 1.47 percent to end at 2-month low of 7,748.20.
"It was a scary day for Indian markets which decisively broke the important zone of 7800 on Nifty...Now actual outcome of state polls will decide the fate of Indian markets going ahead," said Rajshekar Gowda, Senior Analyst, HBJ Capital.
Fall in the global crude oil prices with European benchmark Brent North Sea crude shed USD 1.22 to close at USD 83.78 a barrel in London, would have a sentimental impact, brokers said.
Asian stocks closed lower on mounting anxiety over global growth and fears over spread of Ebola virus. Key indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan fell by 0.25 percent to 2.72 percent.
European markets were also trading lower in afternoon trade as key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK moved down by 0.54 percent to 1.31 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 460 points in afternoon trading yesterday and all three US stock indexes were in negative territory for the year.
Meanwhile, provisional data released by the stock exchanges, showed that Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 694.67 crore on Tuesday.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head Of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Local indices traded weak and gave up over one per cent today as global markets are trading under pressure over slowdown concern".
Major losers from the Sensex pack were Hindalco (5.46 percent), M&M (4.41 percent), SSLT (4.09 percent), Tata Steel (3.57 percent), Tata Power (3.29 percent), RIL (2.99 percent), BHEL (2.95 percent), Bharti Airtel (2.59 percent), HDFC (2.31 percent) Hero MotoCorp (2.27 percent), SBI (2.22 percent) and Bajaj Auto (1.96 percent).
NTPC (1.84 percent), HDFC Bank (1.58 percent), Wipro (1.43 percent), Infosys (1.35 percent), Larsen & Toubro (1.26 percent), ONGC (1.15 percent) also dropped.
ITC rose by 1.48 percent and Coal India 1.34 percent among the four Sensex counters that ended up.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Consumer Durables fell by 4.25 percent, followed by Power 2.91 percent, Metal 2.28 percent, Auto 2.09 percent, Oil&Gas 1.89 percent, Teck 1.77 percent, IT 1.57 percent, Healthcare 1.46 percent and Bankex 1.24 percent.
The total market breadth remained negative as 2,173 scrips ended in red, 756 finished in green while 90 ruled steady. The total turnover moved up marginally to Rs 3,234.62 crore as against Rs 3,226.25 crore on Monday.
