Crude shock at Dalal Street, Sensex tumbles 642 points, Nifty slumps

Equity markets came under heavy selling pressure on Tuesday on fears that a spike in crude prices following attacks on Saudi oil facilities could hurt the economy further. Sensex fell 642 points at its day’s low of 36,500 while Nifty slumped below 10,817 as indices continued to remain under pressure for the second day on Tuesday. Banking, auto, metal and IT stocks led the losses and Rupee also took a beating, falling to 71.88 against the US dollar.

Also read | 50% of Saudi oil output hit after terror attacks on Aramco facilities

Among the stocks, Hero MotoCorp fell 4.4%, Axis Bank 3.75% while ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Maruti, HDFC and Bharti Airtel declined between 2% and 3%.

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Meanwhile, investors in Asian markets remained broadly on the sidelines ahead of an expected interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve and the next round of US-China trade talks later this week.

Also read: Crude prices witness record surge after drone attack on Saudi oilfield

The US and international benchmarks for crude fell back slightly after vaulting more than 14% overnight after an attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing plant.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index recovered from early losses to edge 0.1% higher at 22,001.32 and South Korea’s Kospi was flat at 2,062.33. The S&P ASX/200 in Sydney added 0.3% to 6,695.30.

But the Shanghai Composite index skidded 1.7% to 2,978.71 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.0% after Moody’s shifted its outlook to “negative.” Fitch Rating did so earlier.

Also read: Ground reports of a downturn