Share Market Today: The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday plunged sharply in line with extremely weak trends in global markets amid fears of a slowdown in the US economy. Japan’s Nikkei tanked over 12 per cent which also dented market sentiment.


At close, the Sensex was at 78,768.42, down as much as 2,222 points. The index plunged almost 3 per cent to hit the day's low of 78,588. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 tanked 662 points to close at 24,055.


Stock update


On the 30-share Sensex platform, Tata Motors slumped 7.32 per cent. Adani Ports, Tata Steel, SBI, PowerGrid, Maruti were among the prime losers. On the flip side, HUL and Nestle were the only two gainers.


The fear index, India VIX, ended at a record high of 20.37 points, up 42.23 per cent, indicating massive volatility in the markets.


In the broader markers, Smallcap and Midcap were the worst hit, dropping over 4 per cent.


Investor wealth


Investors' wealth eroded by Rs 9.51 lakh crore on Monday morning, following a crash in equity markets where the benchmark Sensex tanked over 2,400 points, mirroring a sharp plunge in global peers.


Sectoral update


Sectorally, auto, metal, IT, and banking stocks dropped the most. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading sharply lower.


Global update


Japan's Nikkei 225 share index plunged more than 12 per cent on Monday as investors worried that the US economy may be in worse shape than had been expected dumped a wide range of shares. It dropped 5.8 per cent on Friday and has now logged its worst two-day decline ever, dropping 18.2 per cent in the last two trading sessions.


The US markets ended significantly lower on Friday.


"The rally in the global stock markets has been driven mainly by consensus expectations of a soft landing for the US economy. This expectation is now under threat with the fall in US job creation in July and the sharp rise in the US unemployment rate to 4.3 per cent. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East also are a contributing factor," said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.


Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,310 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.


Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.90 per cent to $76.12 a barrel.