Amid growing fear of a wider Middle East conflict, the Indian stock market crashed in the morning trade and extended its losses in the afternoon on Thursday.
The sensex was down more than 1300 points and Nifty fifty index shed around 0.97 per cent at 25,548.4 points.
Most of the sectoral indices were trading in red. Nifty 50 was down 393.75 points or 1.53 per cent at 25403.15, while Nifty Bank declined 717.25 points to trade at 52205.35.
Dabur India (down 5.73 per cent), Adani Green Energy (4.36 per cent ) and BPCL (4.22 per cent ) were among the top losers in large cap stocks
In the mid cap, HPCL was down 5.15 per cent , Phoenix Mills 4.87 per cent , and Persistent Systems 4.40 per cent. Suzlon Energy also saw a dig of over three per cent.
Among the 30 sensex firms, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Maruti, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank emerged as the major underperformers.
Overall, today’s stock market crash led to a sharp decline in the market capitalisation of all listed companies on the BSE by more than Rs 5.5 lakh crore.
The crash is largely being attributed to the ongoing conflict in West Asia. Iran fired around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the recent killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut air strikes by the Israeli military.
Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack was Iran’s biggest mistake and vowed that the country will pay a heavy price.
Israel is believed to have been preparing to launch retaliatory strikes at Iran, triggering fears of a wider Middle East conflict. Iran has warned that its attacks will multiply if Israel launches retaliatory strikes.