Stock markets went-into free fall across the globe, led by China. At the domestic bourses, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange had Sensex crashes over 1,700 points or 6.22 per cent in pre-close trade; investor wealth down over Rs 7 lakh crore. The 30-share Sensex crashed over 1,700 points at 25,665. The overall investors’ wealth, measured in terms of total valuation of all listed stocks, also plunged over Rs 4 lakh crore as it crashed below Rs 100-lakh crore mark and stood at Rs 95,49,578 crore in afternoon trade.
Similarly, the Nifty at the National Stock Exchange had slumped 339 points, to 7,961 a short while ago. The massive market sell-off wiped-out more than three lakh crore rupees worth of investor wealth. The markets were battered down on intense, across-the-board selling by investors, amid a global sell-off, on worries that the Chinese economy was slowing more than expected.
The Chinese stock market was down a massive 8.5 percent. Other key Asian bourses in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore had slumped between 2.4 percent and 5 percent. European markets in the UK, Germany and France had been beaten down by between 2.4 percent and 3 percent.