Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty wilted under selling pressure for the third straight day on Friday as rising crude prices raised concerns over inflationary pressures and global economic stability amid the widening conflict in West Asia.
Intense selling in global markets, unabated foreign fund outflows and continuing weakness in the rupee also dented investor sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 1,579.82 points, or 2 per cent, to 74,454.60 during intra-day trade.
The benchmark finally settled at 74,563.92, down 1,470.50 points, or 1.93 per cent.
A total of 3,348 stocks declined, while 941 advanced and 132 remained unchanged on the BSE.
The 50-share NSE Nifty tanked 488.05 points, or 2.06 per cent, to end at 23,151.10.
The market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed firms slumped by Rs 10,24,181.74 crore to Rs 4,29,82,252.27 crore ($4.65 trillion) on Friday.
On the weekly front, the BSE benchmark tanked 4,354.98 points or 5.51 per cent, and the Nifty dropped 1,299.35 points or 5.31 per cent.
Since February 27, the 30-share BSE Sensex has nosedived 6,723.27 points, or 8.27 per cent. During this time, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 33,68,419 crore to Rs 4,29,82,252.27 crore ($4.65 trillion).
From the Sensex constituents, Larsen & Toubro plunged the most by 7.52 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, SBI, Bharat Electronics, Maruti, and UltraTech Cement.
In contrast, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.
The BSE midcap select index tanked 2.87 per cent, and the smallcap select index dropped 2.48 per cent.
Among the sectoral indices, Metal dropped the most by 4.83 per cent, followed by Industrials (4.15 per cent), Commodities (4.01 per cent), PSU Bank (3.73 per cent), Auto (3.27 per cent), MidSmall Private Banks Quality (3.13 per cent), Capital Goods (2.99 per cent), and Consumer Discretionary (2.69 per cent).
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.25 per cent to $100.7 per barrel.