Sensex Crashes Over 300 Points, Extending Losses For Third Straight Session

Indian equity benchmarks plunged on Tuesday, taking cues from a steep fall in Wall Street stocks after solid US data once again showed the Federal Reserve would continue raising interest rates aggressively for a longer period of time.

The 30-share BSE Sensex index plunged 305.58 points to 62,529.02, and the broader NSE Nifty-50 index opened deep in the red, mirroring the fall in other major Asian indices.

“Indian equities are likely to decline in early Tuesday trades on the back of overnight slump in US markets and subsequent weakness in Asian indices. Last Friday’s hotter-than-expected US jobs report added to concerns that the Fed might need to be even more aggressive in its battle against inflation, despite concerns about a looming recession,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President for Research at Mehta Equities.

Asian markets fell from three-month highs and the dollar maintained gains as new indications of a robust US economy raised expectations that interest rates will increase for an extended period of time.