Monday Mayhem: Sensex crashes 1624-pts; erodes Rs 7-trn wealth

In the worst-ever carnage in stock market, benchmark Sensex today crashed by 1,624.51 points and nearly Rs 7 lakh crore got wiped out from the investors' wealth as rout in Chinese stocks triggered a global sell-off.
The intra-day fall was even larger at 1,741.35 points -- the third biggest ever and highest in over seven years since January 21, 2008, even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, among others, sought to allay the fears and said fundamentals of Indian markets remain strong.
The BSE's 30-share index closed the day at 25,741.56 points, down 5.94 per cent (1624.51 points), as stocks across all sectors including energy, banking, auto, IT, infrastructure and real estate saw massive selling as investors turned jittery amid a global carnage.

The total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative market value of all listed stocks, plunged by nearly Rs 7 lakh crore and crashed below Rs 100-lakh crore mark to end the day at Rs 95,33,105 crore.
The broader 50-share NSE Nifty too witnessed heavy selling pressure and plunged by 490.95 points to 7,809.00.
Asian markets were also in deep red with Shanghai shares closing more than 8 per cent down, while European shares were also down close to 3 per cent in their early trade.