New Delhi, 30 March (H.S.):

India's benchmark indices tumbled sharply on Monday the first trading day of the week as fears of a prolonged West Asia conflict and surging crude prices triggered a sell-off wiping nearly 971000 crore rupees about 115 billion dollars from investor wealth.

The BSE Sensex shed 163567 points or 222 percent closing at 7194755 while the Nifty 50 dropped 48820 points or 214 percent at 2233140 extending Friday's rout where Sensex lost over 1635 points and Nifty more than 485.

Sector-Wide Selloff Hits Banks Hardest

All sectoral indices ended in red with banking dragging Nifty Bank down 382 percent auto capital goods consumer durables and tech slumping over 2 percent alongside PSE oil gas metals health care FMCG and IT.

Broader markets fared no better as Nifty Midcap fell 268 percent and Smallcap 266 percent with BSE market cap shrinking from 42215 trillion rupees Friday to 41244 trillion rupees.

Intraday Volatility Fails to Stem Losses

Sensex opened down 1018 points at 7256522 briefly recovering over 600 points in the first 20 minutes to 7316532 before relentless selling pushed it to an intraday low of 7177413 rebounding marginally to close off 163567.

Nifty mirrored the pattern opening 26995 points lower at 2254965 dipping to 2247015 then clawing back before sliding to 2228385 and settling 48820 down.

Trading saw 4593 BSE stocks active with 876 gainers 3563 losers and 154 flat NSE had 3064 stocks traded 429 up 2635 down.

Among Sensex pack two advanced 28 declined Nifty's 50 stocks saw four green 46 red.

Top Gainers: Hindalco Industries +205% Tech Mahindra +165% Coal India +121% ONGC +096% Power Grid +020%.

Top Losers: Bajaj Finance -501% SBI -393% InterGlobe Aviation -351% Bajaj Finserv -371% Axis Bank -364%.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar