Global jitters over US rate hike expectations and the European Central Bank's decidedly underwhelming series of policy easing measures triggered a major fall on bourses today with the benchmark Nifty cracking below the crucial 7,800-mark.
Extending the slide for the third straight day on the National Stock Exchange here, the bellwether Nifty index plunged over 82 points -- its biggest fall in two weeks.
Sharp volatility in currency market after rupee plunged to fresh two-year low in early trade before rebounding also rattled investors' sentiment.
Uncertainly surrounding the US central bank's first rate hike in nearly a decade amid fears of withdrawal of funds from emerging markets predominantly ignited the slide.
The European Central Bank (ECB) largely disappointed investors by infusing a smaller-than-expected additional stimulus measures which were not enough to keep traders happy, resulting in huge swings in financial markets across the globe.
After a sharp gap-down start, market kept descending as trading progressed with selling across the board till end of the trade.
Realty, FMCG, Financials, Infra, Auto, Energy and Metal stocks witnessed heavy unwinding from traders.
The 50-share Nifty nosedived to hit a fresh intra-day low of 7,775.70 before closing at 7,781.90, showing a massive slide of 82.25 points, or 1.05 per cent, over the last finish.
Media topped the sectoral indices, falling 2.57 per cent. It was followed by realty (1.46 per cent), FMCG (1.27 per cent), energy (1.29 per cent), Nifty Bank (1.24 per cent), infra (1.17 per cent), auto (1.13 per cent), tech (1.02 per cent), PSU bank (0.82 per cent) and metal 0.15 per cent.
Mid-cap and Small-cap tumbled by 1.03 and 1.72 per cent, respectively. However, healthcare bucked the general trend and was up 0.82 per cent.
HDFC, ITC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance, Infosys, M&M, Tata Motors, Zee, TCS, Kotak Bank, HCL-Tech, Power Grid, L&T, NTPC, ONGC and Maruti were the major index laggards.
Notable smart movers included Sun Pharma, which rose 3.92 per cent on news that one of its subsidiaries had received final approval from US FDA.
Other gainers were Bharti Airtel, Cairn India, UltraTech Cement, Coal India and Tata Steel.
Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 16,883.23 crore from Rs 15,984.53 crore yesterday. A total of 11,194.25 lakh shares changed hands in 72,85,697 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 95,79,326 crore.
