Updated at 7 pm
MUMBAI: The country's key stock market barometer Sensex on Tuesday tanked 350 points, snapping a four-session bull run on a bearish global trend that saw Thailand's benchmark index tumble to a 16-year low.
At one stage, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex (Sensitive Index) was down by a massive 511 points at 13,237.39 from the day's high of 13,748.62.
However, short-coverings at lower levels and buying by local funds in the nick of time helped it recover part of lost ground and closed at 13,382.01 -- showing a steep fall of 349.08 points or 2.54 per cent over Monday's close.
Similarly, the broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange, tumbled by 96.75 points or 2.46 per cent to end at 3,832.00 from previous close of 3,928.75.
On Wall Street on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished in the red. But a sharp fall in most of the Asian markets mainly impacted negatively on the market sentiment.
The Hang Seng dipped by 237.54 points, the Nikkei by 185.23 points, the Singapore ST by 59.90 points and Taiwan by 25.74 points at close on Tuesday.
Thailand's SET Index slid the most in 16 years, wiping $22.5 billion off the stock market's value reacting to the central bank's announcement that international investors will have to pay a 10 per cent penalty on funds withdrawn out of that country within a year.
The customary year-end pull-out by Foreign Institutional Investors also caused the damage. FIIs were net sellers in the last two days.
The fall in the Sensex could be gauged by a sharp decline in 29 out of 30 index-based scrips as only Hero Honda survived the bears' onslaught.
