Sensex tumbles 301 points in early trade to dip below 34,000-mark on global sell-off; Nifty falls 80 points

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 percent, to 33,732.47 points. It had gained 186.73 points on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_5263731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. Reuters[/caption] 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 percent. Also, the broader NSE Nifty cracked below the 10,200-mark by falling 79.95 points, or 0.78 percent, 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 percent. However, Wipro rose 1.73 percent after the company posted better-than-expected earnings Wednesday. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 2.80 percent, Shanghai Composite Index down 1.49 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.90 percent and Korea plunged 2.23 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 2.41 percent down Wednesday and wiped out the gains for the year.