Vote counting: Sensex down by nearly 4,000 points


Indian stock markets crashed by nearly 4,000 points today, after a sharp rally in the previous session, as early vote-counting trends showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance leading in more than 272 seats, but the extent of the victory was not clear and its lead narrower than what exit polls had predicted.

The BSE Sensex was down 5.07 per cent or 3,997 points at 72,684, while the NSE Nifty 50 was down 5.07 per cent or 1,178 points at 11.10 am.

The benchmarks had jumped more than 3% on Monday, hitting record highs and logging their best session in nearly 40 months after exit polls projected that the BJP-led alliance will likely get a two-thirds majority in the lower house.

As per the early trends, the NDA is currently leading on 288 seats, while the INDIA bloc is ahead on 213 seats.

The biggest laggards in the 30 company Sensex were State Bank of India, Reliance, Larsen & Toubro, Power Grid, NTPC, HDFC Bank.