The stock market on Thursday witnessed a virtual bloodbath, with its key index losing nearly 650 points – its biggest fall in four months – on panic selling by funds in line with global meltdown.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex tanked 642.70 points, or 4.28 per cent, to settle at 14,358.21 on frantic selling by funds influenced by a steep fall in global stock markets concerned over a widening credit crunch. The index touched the day’s low of 14,345.03 points.
The Sensex had suffered a loss of 616.73 points on April 2.
The National Stock Exchange fell by 191.60 points, or 4.38 per cent, to 4,178.60, after touching a low of 4,171.15.
The US Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.4 per cent on Wednesday night, erasing its gains for the year.
The weakness was extending in all stock markets in the Asian region and most of the markets such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea ended with wide losses.
As the market remained on a downward march throughout the day, metal index suffered the most by losing 6.51 per cent, capital goods by 4.43 per cent, realty index by 5.56 per cent, bank index by 5.42 per cent, oil and gas index by 4.37 per cent and PSU index by 3.93 per cent.