Sensex, Nifty Crash Amid Pressure on Global Markets

Equity market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty crashed in early trade on Monday following extremely sluggish trends in global markets triggered by fears of a slowdown in the US economy and foreign fund outflows.

Dalal Street saw the 30-share BSE Sensex tank 2,401.49 points to 78,580.46 in early trade. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tumbled 489.65 points to 24,228.05 as Tata Motors, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, Maruti and Reliance Industries were the biggest losers. However, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever were trading in the positive territory.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading significantly lower while Shanghai quoted higher. The US markets ended sharply lower on August 2, 2024.

Japan's Nikkei 225 share index slumped around 13 per cent amid investors' worries that the US economy may be in worse shape than had been expected. The Nikkei index was down 12.9 per cent at 31,290.63 by mid-afternoon on Monday in Tokyo. Meanwhile, investors' wealth eroded by Rs 9.51 lakh crore on Monday morning as benchmark Sensex tanked over 2,400 points.

The sharp decline in equities saw the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms drop by Rs 9,51,771.37 crore to Rs 4,47,65,174.76 crore (USD 5.35 trillion) during the morning trade.