Mumbai: The Sensex plunged 1,491 points while the Nifty slumped below the 16,000-mark on Monday, mirroring a deep sell-off in world stocks after oil prices soared to multi-year highs amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stoking fears of hyper-inflation and sluggish growth.
Extending its downtrend for the fourth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a weak note and slumped 1,966.71 points or 3.61 per cent to 52,367.10 during the day. It managed to recover some lost ground to end at 52,842.75, down 1,491.06 points or 2.74 per cent.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty tanked 382.20 points or 2.35 per cent to finish at 15,863.15.
Both the indices closed at over seven-month lows.
Investors' wealth has tumbled by over Rs 11.28 lakh crore in four days, while the BSE benchmark has lost 3,404.53 points or 6.05 per cent.
IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest drags on the Sensex in Monday's session, diving up to 7.63 per cent.
Only four counters closed in the green — Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, Tata Steel and Infosys, rising up to 3.46 per cent.
The broader market also faced the brunt, with the BSE smallcap and midcap indices diving as much as 2.30 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty, bank, finance and auto finished with deep cuts, tumbling up to 5.31 per cent. Only telecom, metal, oil & gas and tech finished with gains.
As many as 2,608 stocks declined, while 849 advanced and 137 remained unchanged.
International oil benchmark Brent crude surged 6.08 per cent to $125.3 a barrel.
Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they offloaded shares worth Rs 7,631.02 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to
exchange data.