Mumbai, Mar 12 (IANS): With a sell-off across segments, Indian stock markets formally moved into the bear zone and the BSE Sensex registered its biggest single-day fall of over 2,900 points.
The Sensex closed at 32,778.14, lower by 2,919.26 or 8.18 per cent from its previous close of 35,697.40. It had opened at day's high of 34,472.50 and fell 3,200 points to touch an intra-day low of 32,493.10.
A bear market is a condition when a security price falls 20 per cent or more from its recent high. Sensex is down nearly 22 per cent from its recent high of 42,273.87 hit in January, and the Nifty is also down 22 per cent from the all-time high of 12,430.50.
The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 868.25 points or 8.30 per cent lower at 9,590.15.
Rahul Sharma, Business Head at Equity99 said that all traders and investors should stay away from the market till it gets stable.
On the Sensex, all stocks ended in the red led by the State Bank of India, which settled 13.23 per cent lower, followed by ONGC (12.63 per cent) and Axis Bank (12.27 per cent).
The plunge was in line with the global markets as all Asian indices also traded in the red after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic following which the Dow Jones Industrial Average also slumped significantly on Wednesday.
The bear run in both the global and domestic markets has continued off late on concerns of the coronavirus outbreak severely impacting the global economy. It has also raised calls for government intervention and support.
Central banks in several countries, including the US Federal Reserve have announced emergency rate cuts to boost sentiments. However, the concerns have only deepended in the past few days as the number of COVID-19 cases across the world has increased.
Further, following the rout in the global markets oil prices also fell on Thursday with the Brent crude trading around $33.6 per barrel. The Indian rupee also felt the pressure and touched a 17-month low of 74.34 per dollar in its initial trade.