The detection of a new Covid variant in South Africa on Friday triggered panic selling in the global markets with domestic stocks also getting sucked into the whirlwind.

While the Sensex plummeted 1688 points and investor wealth eroded almost Rs 7.36 lakh crore, the rupee crashed 37 paise against the dollar.

The fear over the new strain was visible in the global markets with the Dow Jones crashing more than 800 points in early trades on Friday.

During the day, indices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo crashed as much as 2.67 per cent, while the FTSE 100 index was trading lower by three per cent.

Oil prices also came under pressure with Brent crude falling below $80-per-barrel mark.

Investors feared fresh restrictions and lockdowns that would hurt recovery. The Indian economy was also reviving quickly though stocks were on a wobble on account of lofty valuations, selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and rising input prices.

“ The markets are expected to remain volatile with reports of surging infections in the next wave of the pandemic especially in some of the European countries,’’ Joseph Thomas, head of research, Emkay Wealth said.

In Friday’s trading, the 30-share Sensex opened sharply lower at 58254.79 and fell below 57000 mark to hit the day’s low of 56993.89 — a drop of 1801 points. It later closed at 57107.15, crashing 1,687.94 points or 2.87 per cent.

The NSE Nifty plunged 509.80 points or 2.91 per cent to 17026.45. Barring four stocks in the Sensex, the rest ended with losses of up to 6 per cent.

Indiabulls jumps

Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance rallied around 9 per cent on reports the promoter group is likely to bring down their stake to below 10 per cent from around 22 per cent and it may look at a QIP issue in this regard.

On Thursday, BNP Paribas Arbitrage and Societe Generale had sold 1.1 per cent of the company’s equity through open market transactions.

The scrip ended at Rs 246.40 on the BSE — a rise of 8.76 per cent or Rs 19.85 over the last close.