US President Donald Trump’s very first day in office scared away investors as the Sensex tanked 1235 points to a more than seven-month low of 75838.36 that led to investors losses of over ₹7 lakh crore on the BSE.

Market anxiety shot up on the 47th President of the world’s largest economy announcing plans for trade tariffs on neighbouring countries, sparking speculations of more such tariffs in the anvil that will ratchet up inflation in the US and force its central bank to resort to fewer interest rate cuts from the Fed.

In more bad news for market players, Trump’s announcement was accompanied by persistent selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) with provisional data showing them selling stocks worth ₹5,920 crore on Tuesday.

Volatility also ruled with the Sensex swinging nearly 1700 points between the high and low points of the session. Fear index India VIX hit a six-month high of 17.44, settling at 17.05, marking a rise of nearly 4 per cent from Monday.

The 30-share Sensex tanked 1.60 per cent with 28 of its constituents ending in the red. During the day, the index plummeted 1431.57 points to touch an intra-session low of 75641.87.

On the NSE, the Nifty plunged 320.10 points to close at 23024.65, a level not seen since June 6, 2024. In intra-day trade, the broader index cracked 367.9 points to 22976.85.

As a result of widespread losses, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by ₹7.52 lakh crore to ₹424 lakh crore.

In the broader market, while the BSE midcap index collapsed 2 per cent, the smallcap gauge was down 1.94 per cent.

Analysts said volatility was likely to prevail in the short-term as market participants deal with an unpredictable Trump who is also known to come out with more nuanced measures.

“Markets were on a cautious mode in the past few sessions, but witnessed frenzied selling on Tuesday as investors now fear that Trump’s inaugural speech to safeguard America’s interest could hurt economic prospects of many countries, including India.

“While foreign investors continue to offload domestic shares at will, any further rise in US bond yields could trigger massive selling,’’ Prashanth Tapse, senior VP (research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Zomato down

Shares of Zomato and Swiggy tanked up to 11 per cent after the former announced disappointing Q3 numbers that was marked by a slowdown in the food delivery business.

The Zomato share ended at ₹214.65 on the BSE, a fall of 10.92 per cent over the last close after crashing nearly 13 per cent during intra-day trades to ₹210.15. Swiggy settled at ₹440.30 — a drop of 8.08 per cent.

This selling pressure came as Zomato reported a 57.2 per cent drop in consolidated net profit for October-December to ₹ 59 crore against ₹138 crore in the year-ago period.