Sensex tumbles 301 points on global sell-off

Mumbai: The Benchmark Sensex on Thursday slumped over 301 points to dip below the 34,000-mark in early trade, largely in sync with meltdown at other Asian markets following overnight losses at the Wall Street and fresh weakness in the rupee.

Besides, investors were also cautious ahead of the last session of October month expiry in the derivatives segment. In the forex market, the rupee weakened by 19 paise to 73.35 against the US dollar due to increased demand for the US currency from importers.

Brokers said negative cues from other Asian bourses after US markets plummeted Wednesday as a sharp drop in tech shares and worries about corporate earnings, triggered sell-off on the domestic exchanges here.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 301.49 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 33,732.47 points. It had gained 186.73 points on Wednesday. Reflecting the overall bearish mood, all the sectoral indices, led by realty, metal, capital goods and bankex, were trading in the negative terrain with losses up to 1.85 per cent.

Also, the broader NSE Nifty cracked below the 10,200-mark by falling 79.95 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 10,144.80.

Top laggards included Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Vedanta Ltd, RIL, HUL, L&T, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Asian Paint, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Ltd, PowerGrid, Yes Bank and Tata Steel, falling by up to 3.71 per cent.

However, Wipro rose 1.73 per cent after the company posted better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.80 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index down 1.49 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.90 per cent and Korea plunged 2.23 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 2.41 per cent down Wednesday and wiped out the gains for the year.