BSE Sensex, Nifty crash on Aug 24: 10 things to know

The markets witnessed a bloodbath as the week opened on Monday with both indices Sensex and Nifty plunging almost 6 per cent. Here are the 10 key takeaways from the day:

1. The BSE Sensex closed 1,624.51 points, or 5.94 per cent, down at 25,741.56. This was Sensex's biggest daily percentage fall since January 7, 2009. The index fell to as low as 25,624.72 at one point, its lowest intra-day level since August 11, 2014.
   
2. The 50-share Nifty managed to hold 7,800-level, falling 490.95 points, or 5.92 per cent, to end the day at 7,809. This was the index's biggest fall since January 7, 2009. It earlier hit a low of 7,769.40, its lowest since October 17, 2014.
   
3. As many as  2,480 stocks closed in the red. 205 stocks hit their year-lows amid the sell-off. 314 stocks defied the overall trend to trade in the positive zone.
4. S&P BSE Auto (-1351.50) and S&P BSE Bankex (-1445.76) were the biggest sectoral losers. Bank NIFTY also fell over 1,200 points.
5. The top losing stocks on BSE were Vedanta (-15.30%), Tata Steel (-13.11%), GAIL (-12.78%), ONGC (-11.17%) and Bajaj Auto (-9.09%). The top losers on NSE were Vedanta (-14.27), Cairn India (-13.23%), Tata Steel  (-13.13%), GAIL (-12.20%) and ONGC (-11.04%).
6. The overall investors' wealth, measured in terms of total valuation of all listed stocks, plunged by about Rs 7 lakh crore as it crashed below Rs 100-lakh crore mark and stood at Rs 95,33,105 crore.
   
7. The rupee continued its free fall amid fears of foreign capital outflows and closed the day's trade at 66.65 - down 82 paise from its previous close.
   
8. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan earlier in the day tried to allay investors' fears , saying India's fundamentals are "much better" in relation to other countries and hence, there was no cause of worry. Rajan also said the turmoil in currency market has been long-coming and China is only the last step in it. RBI will not "hesitate" to use its forex reserves to curb currency volatility, he added.
9. The Chinese stock markets spooked investors across the world. The near 9 per cent slump on Monday was its worst performance since 2009 and wiped out what was left of the 2015 gains, which in June has been more than 50 per cent.
   
10. "... Obviously [the] turbulence has had impact on Indian financial markets itself. The factors responsible for this are entirely external. I have not the least doubt that this turbulence is transient and temporary in nature. The markets will settle down," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.