Mumbai: Sensex plunges 417.80 points to end at 24,062.04; Nifty cracks below 7,400-mark, falls 125.80 points to 7,309.30.
In the afternoon trade, BSE benchmark Sensex had fallen close to 640 points to trade at 23,839.76. The broader Nifty fell as much as 2.39 percent below the key 7,300 level, its lowest since June 2, 2014.
In the morning, Sensex tumbled close to 500 points, slipping below 24,000 for the first time since May 2014.
In late morning deals, Sensex opened at 24,107.75 on massive sell-off in banks, metals and capital goods stocks, tracking bearish overseas cues after IMF slashed global growth forecast. Global sell-off on fresh worries over economic growth slowdown and sliding crude oil continued to batter sentiment. In a quarterly update to its World Economic Outlook yesterday, IMF said the global economy will expand 3.4 per cent in 2016, down from an earlier estimated 3.6 per cent in October.
It also trimmed its forecast for growth in 2017 to 3.6 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent three months ago. However, IMF retained India's growth outlook at 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal and 7.5 per cent in the next two even as it lowered the world projection on slumping oil and commodity prices.
The BSE Sensex opened lower at 24,325.77 and slid to 24,025.11, it was quoting 24,107.75 at 1100 hours, down 372.09 points or 1.52 per cent. The NSE Nifty was also trading below the key 7,400 mark, down 113.70 points or 1.53 per cent to 7,321.40. Major losers were Adani Ports down by 4.91 per cent, BHEL 3.81 per cent, Coal India 3.50 per cent, SBI 3.33 per cent, Axis Bank 3.29 per cent, L&T 3.11 per cent, HUL 3.00 per cent and RIL 2.57 per cent.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 857.70 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. In overseas, Asian markets dropped as sliding oil prices heightened investor concern that the global growth outlook is worsening. While, US stocks finished mostly higher on January 19.
