Sensex Nosedives 781 Points, Nifty Down 231 Points; IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Among Top Laggards

Equity markets tumbled in line with the Wall Street which saw its steepest decline in nearly three months, with the Dow plunging more than 1,800 points amid a broad market sell-off.

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New Delhi: Domestic markets on Friday took a hit with 30-stock index Sensex slipping 781.02 or 2.34 per cent and Nifty was 231.75 points lower at 9,670 level at 10.17 AM. Benchmark indices were in red in the opening session with over 2 per cent slip in line with the global markets which witnessed a mammoth plunge. The top laggards remain IndusInd Bank which was down 6 per cent followed by ONGC and Kotak Mahindra Bank which were both down 4 per cent. A total of 30 companies are expected to announce Q4 results which include auto majors Mahindra & Mahindra and Eicher Motor. Rupee has opened 32 paise weaker at 76.10 per US dollar against Thursday's close of 75.78/$. The sell-off in global markets kept domestic equities under pressure. Domestic equity markets tumbled in line with Wall Street which saw its steepest decline in nearly three months, with the Dow plunging more than 1,800 points amid a broad market sell-off. On Thursday, the 30-stock index shed 1,861.82 points, or 6.9 per cent, to 25,128.17. The S&P 500 sank 188.04 points, or 5.89 per cent, to 3,002.1. The Nasdaq decreased 527.62 points, or 5.27 per cent, to 9,492.73. The major averages posted their worst day since mid-March, Xinhua news agency reported. All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors finished sharply lower, with energy and financials down 9.45 per cent and 8.18 per cent, respectively, leading the losses. Meanwhile, shares in Asia also reacted sharply tracking the overnight retreat on Wall Street. SGX Nifty, which indicates the movement for Indian stocks, crashed 2.5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong were down 1.5  per cent each, while South Korea's Kospi fell 2.7 per cent. The market sentiments were hit by concerns of rising coronavirus cases in some US states and a weak estimate of economic recovery from the Federal Reserve, Lucy Qiu, a strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told Xinhua on Thursday. (With inputs from IANS) .