Sensex plunges 1,000 points, rupee cracks 68-mark on Brexit jitters

The dollar strengthening against some currencies overseas and a crash in domestic equity market, kept pressure on the rupee.

Mumbai

: Rupee crashed by 96 paise to breach the 68-level against the US dollar in the early trade on June 24 as leads show 'Leave' camp ahead in the UK referendum vote. Heavy demand for the American currency from importers and banks and foreign fund outflows weighed on the domestic currency, forex dealers said. Besides, the dollar strengthening against some currencies overseas and a crash in domestic equity market, kept pressure on the rupee.

On June 23, the rupee had ended higher by 23 paise at 67.25 on selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of weakness of dollar in the overseas market amid sharp recovery in equities. Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex cracked below the 27,000-mark by plunging 1,000 points to 26,957 in early trade.

On frenetic selling in early trade today, market benchmark Sensex nosedived by over 948 points to crack the crucial 27,000-mark, while Nifty broke below the 8,000-level after local media declared that Britain has voted to leave the European Union. The camp in favour of Britain's exit from the EU was leading by four percentage points over the Remain camp with over 70 per cent of results declared in the referendum as a BBC forecast said the results were for 'Brexit'.

Consequently, the Sensex plunged below 1,000 points with all the sectoral indices led by auto, banking and metal, slumping by up to 4.17 per cent. On similar lines, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty dropped below 300 points. Sentiment suffered a jolt following a meltdown in global equities after referendum result indicated Britain would leave the European Union, triggered all-round selling, dragging down the key indices from their key levels.

Moreover, the rupee breaching the 68-level against the US dollar by crashing 96 paise to 68.21 also had a bearing on the sentiment. Most of the 30-Sensex constituents led by Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, Adani Ports, L&t, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, TCS, HDFC Bank, HDFC Ltd, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India and RIL were trading in negative terrain, falling by up to 9.71 per cent.

Meanwhile, Brent oil prices too dived 4.05 per cent to 48.85 per barrel in Asian trade. In Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 3.67 per cent, Japan's Nikkei down 3.05 per cent while Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.33 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 1.29 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.