Stocks and the rupee plunged on Friday amid a global sell-off in equities triggered by an IT outage that caused devices to crash globally.
While the BSE Sensex tanked 738.81 points or 0.91 per cent to end at 80604.65, the rupee ended at record low of 83.66 to the dollar in the wake of the share crash.
The global Microsoft outage gave investors the opportunity to resort to profit booking: The 30-share BSE Sensex hit a new all-time high of 81587.76 in initial trade but failed to carry forward the winning momentum to settle below 81000.
Forex traders said the weak domestic markets and elevated oil prices pressured the rupee.
However, likely Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervention prevented a sharp fall in the domestic unit.
“We expect the rupee to trade with a slight negative bias on weak global markets and a strength in the US dollar. Weak Asian and European currencies may also weigh on the rupee,” Anuj Choudhary, research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said.
The NSE Nifty tumbled 269.95 points, or 1.09 per cent, and ended at 24530.90 after reaching a new peak of 24854.80 during the opening bell. Among the Sensex pack, Tata Steel tumbled over 5 per cent, while JSW Steel tanked nearly 5 per cent.
Tata Motors, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Reliance Industries were the other major laggards.
Infosys climbed nearly 2 per cent after the IT major
reported a 7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at ₹6,368 crore in the April-June quarter and raised its growth outlook for the current financial year, signalling an
improvement in the IT segment.
ITC, Asian Paints and HCL Technologies were the other gainers.
The NSE and the BSE said they are not impacted because of the global outage of Microsoft systems even as disruptions were reported in functioning of several airlines, banks, media outlets worldwide.