Sensex plummets close to 600 points, Nifty sinks below 10,900 mark

New Delhi: Stock market witnessed a bloodbath on Friday with the Sensex crashing by close to 600 points while Nifty sunk below 10,900 mark after Fitch Ratings said weak public finances constrain India's sovereign ratings.

The Sensex tumbled by 591.69 points or 1.64 percent to quote at 35,314.97 as banking, financials capital goods and auto stocks nosedived.

Also, the NSE Nifty dipped below the 10,900-mark to trade at 10,826.50, down by 190.40 points, or 1.72 percent.

The benchmark indices plunged up to 1.72 percent in late morning trade

Widespread selling dragged all the sectoral indices led by realty, consumer durables, power, capital goods and banking sectors, falling up to 5.17 percent.

Stocks had opened down as the government's proposal to impose a 10 percent long term capital gains tax on equity gains of over Rs 1 lakh hit triggered profit booking in frontline stocks.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley projected a fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP for current fiscal against the earlier target of 3.2 percent which also dampened the market sentiment.

Banking stocks led by Yes Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, HDFC LTD and IndusInd Bank suffered losses up to 3.80 percent.

Other losers that pulled down the key indices from their crucial levels were ONGC, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Hero Motocop, Power Grid, Coal India, Asian Paints, Reliance Ind, Coal India.

Global markets were also trading in the negative after most of the US stock indices fell due to political crisis and growth concerns. Equity traders around the world have been firing on all cylinders in recent months, sending markets to record or multi-year highs, on confidence in the global economy, healthy earnings and optimism over Donald Trump's tax cuts.

With Agency Inputs