Sensex plunges over 400 pts, Nifty cracks below 10,000

Mumbai, March 23

Domestic equities took a beating on Friday amid global selloff after US President Donald Trump imposed USD 60 billion tariffs on Chinese imports -- a move that has fuelled fears of a global trade war.

The BSE Sensex plunged below the 33,000-level, plummeting 471.44 points, or 1.42 per cent, to 32,534.83. The gauge had lost 129.91 points in the previous session.

The NSE Nifty too cracked below the crucial 10,000 mark by diving 153.45 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 9,961.30.

All the sectoral indices, led by metal, realty, banking and capital goods stocks, were trading in the red, falling up to 2.77 per cent.

Top laggards were Yes Bank, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and L&T, falling by up to 3.08 per cent.

Investor sentiment turned extremely bearish, in line with sharp losses on the Wall Street and Asian markets, on growing fears of a global trade war after Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese imports and Beijing drawing up a list of retaliatory measures, brokers said.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued selling on domestic bourses. On a net basis, they sold shares worth Rs 1,065.99 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases to the tune of Rs 1,127.78 crore on Friday, provisional data showed.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 3.54 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 2.78 per cent in early deals. The Shanghai Composite index dropped by 3.06 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 2.93 per cent lower yesterday. PTI