Indian markets suffered another bloody blow as panic-stricken investors reacted with alarm to the crisis engulfing China and sent the Nifty below the 7,600 mark on the National Stock Exchange here.
The 50-share benchmark nosedived by whopping 172.70 points, or 2.23 per cent, to end at 7,568.30 -- a level not seen since September 7, 2015.
The panicked sell-off in equities across the globe was sparked by another round of "currency wars" after the Chinese central bank stunned the market by slashing the yuan fixing rate to the lowest level since April 2011.
Heightened worries over the health of the second-largest economy in the world resurfaced once again following gloomy macro data against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions stemming from Saudi-Iran tensions and North Korea's nuclear test.
The ferocious wave of selling hammered all major sectoral indices.
In the meantime, trading was halted in Chinese stock market for the rest of the day for the second time this week after it plunged below the key seven-percent level.
After a gap-down start, the domestic market kept sliding throughout the session as traders swung into panic mode and selling stocks with high exposure to the region amid growing uncertainty about global growth outlook in the midst of Chinese equity rout and geopolitical tensions.
Among the sectoral front, realty tumbled 4.96 per cent, followed by metal (4.73 per cent), PSU bank (4.08 per cent), auto (3.74 per cent), infra (2.74 per cent), media (2.48 per cent), energy (2.40 per cent), Nifty bank (2.19 per cent), pharma (1.90 per cent) and technology (1.41 per cent).
The mid-cap and small-cap indices too bore the brunt of carnage, falling over 3 per cent.
Major laggards included Tata Motors, HDFC, Infosys, Axis Bank, Reliance, ITC, L&T, Maruti, SBI, ONGC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, M&M, HUL, Tata Steel, Kotak Bank and Vedanta.
However, Bharti Airtel was the only index gainers.
Turnover in cash segment slipped to Rs 18,650.32 crore from Rs 20,110.22 crore yesterday.
A total of 11,127.87 lakh shares changed hands in 82,59,340 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 94,80,099 crore.
