Sensex plunges over 400 points as rupee breaches 72.50 mark

The BSE Sensex plunged over 400 points in afternoon session Monday after the rupee breached 72.50 mark against the US dollar for the first time ever amid weak Asian cues.

While, rupee continued its free fall hitting a new low of 72.67 due to a strengthening dollar and widening trade deficit.

The rupee on Monday slumped to a fresh record low of 72.41, down by 67 paisa, i.e nearly 1% in intraday trade against the US dollar on strong demand for the US currency from importers as the greenback strengthened against other currencies overseas on upbeat jobs data.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local currency opened at record low of 72.15 a dollar from its previous close of 71.73 and slipped to hit a fresh low of 72.18, down by 45 paise. It had breached its previous record low of 72.11 hit on September 6.

Forex dealers said besides strong demand for the American currency, buying by importers, mainly oil refiners in view of surging crude oil prices and capital outflows, weighed on the domestic currency.

Global market sentiment turned weak after US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened tariffs on a further $267 billion worth of Chinese imports. While, Beijing warned of retaliation if the US goes ahead with any new measures.

The 30-share index dropped 418.39 points, or 1.09 per cent, to trade at 37,971.43 at 1225 hrs.

The broader Nifty-50 index also trading lower below 11,500 market at 11,470.65, down 118.45 points, or 1.02 per cent.

Heavy selling was witnessed in FMCG, telecom, consumer durables, finance, oil and gas, realty, power, metals, banks, energy, auto and utilities sectors.

Major losers were SBI, IndusInd Bank, Vedanta, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, RIL and HDFC falling up to 2.52 per cent.

While, Wipro, NTPC, Axis Bank and Adani Ports bucked weak market trend, gaining up to 0.79 per cent.

Most Asian markets were trading lower as trade tensions between the US and China remained in focus, China's trade surplus with the United States widened to a record in August.

US stocks closed lower last Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending 0.31 per cent lower.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)