After opening a tad higher on Wednesday, a key equity market index was deep in the red, around an hour into trading, with as many as 29 out of the 30 shares that go into its basket sliding into the negative territory.
The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 27,473.36 points, a bit higher than the previous close at 27,440.14 points. But the slide began immediate after, taking it to below the psychologically-important 27,000-point mark at 10:15 a.m.
The index at this time was trading at 26,968.43 points, with a los of 471.71 points, or 1.72 percent, after having slid to a low of 26,868.45 points. Only Bharti Airtel was managing to stay afloat, up 3.75 percent, while the steepest fall was for Cipla, down 3.51 percent.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the Nifth was down 151.85 points, or 1.82 percent.
