Indian stock markets opened on Monday with severe sell-offs as the trade war between the United States of America and China intensified and sent shock waves through international financial markets.
The Sensex crashed nearly 3000 points, and the Nifty fell below the critical 22,000 level, wiping out around lakhs of crores in investor wealth.
At noon, the Sensex was trading at 72,385.4, down 2,979 points or 3.95 percent, while the Nifty dropped 976.1 points or 4.26 percent to 21,928.3.
The major trigger for the Monday crash was the intensifying trade conflict between the world's two largest economies.
In retaliation to the sweeping tariff hikes announced by the US, China struck back with retaliatory duties on several American products.
Mutual tit-for-tat moves have raised fears of protracted trade warfare that could scuttle global economic growth besides disrupting manufacturing and supply chains.
Investors around the globe are growing worried that such trade tensions will hurt global demand, drive up costs for businesses, and hurt corporate profits.
The phobia of global recession has also unsettled investors.
This, coupled with the uncertainty, has resulted in heavy sell-offs across equity markets, with Asia feeling the heat the most.
Japan's Nikkei tumbled 7 percent, South Korea's Kospi fell 5 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng crashed over 10.5 percent.
And the pessimism spilled over to India, where all 13 sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in negative territory.
The Nifty Metal index slid 8 percent lower, while Nifty IT dropped more than 7 percent amid worries over US exposure. Auto, real estate, and oil and gas sectors also fell more than 5 percent each.
The sell-off was more severe on the broader market, where mid-cap and small-cap indices lost 7.3 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Tata Steel led the losers on the Sensex, crashing almost 10 percent, followed by Tata Motors, Infosys, L&T, and Tech Mahindra, all down between 6 and 8 percent.
--IANS