Sensex crashes 769 pts in biggest fall in four years

It was bloodbath in markets on Friday with Sensex crashing 769.41 points, the biggest fall in four years, to end at 18,598 on fresh concerns about US stimulus withdrawal and rupee plunging to record low of 62, draining investor wealth by Rs 2 lakh crore.

After gaining 703 points in the last four sessions, the Sensex plunged 769.41 points, or 3.97 per cent, to 18,598.18 on all-round selling. Consumer durables, realty, banks and metal sector took major beating.

Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities said: "Markets started on a soft note on weak global cues but fell suddenly and sharply on continuing concerns over the depreciating rupee and tapering of monetary stimulus by Fed. Rupee fell to an intra-day low of 62/USD."

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty nosedived by 234.45 points, or 4.08 per cent, to 5,507.83, after touching day's low of 5,496.05.

In 30-share Sensex pack, barring Hero MotoCorp, all stocks closed with heavy losses. Major losers were Reliance Industries (4.62 per cent), Sterlite Ind (6.65 per cent), ONGC (6.06 per cent), Jindal Steel (5.46 per cent) and L&T (5.19 per cent) and Maruti (4.84 per cent).

Others like SBI (3.32 per cent), BHEL (10.70 per cent), GAIL (6.49 per cent), HDFC (5.81 per cent), HDFC Bank (5.05 per cent) and ICICI Bank (5.02 per cent) also bore the brunt of investor selling.

Brokers said a weak trend in Asian and European markets on speculation that US Federal Reserve might roll back monetary stimulus after jobless claims in US declined to lowest level since 2007, further influenced the market.

Sectorally, the consumer durable sector index suffered the most by losing 8.38 per cent to 5,893.26, followed by realty index by 6.07 per cent to 1,263.77. Metal index fell by 5.56 per cent to 6,953.89 and bank index by 5.55 per cent to 10,800.62.