Stock markets tumbled to a new three-year low on Tuesday after trading in the positive zone for most of the day. A last-hour slide sent all the indices downhill, mirroring overseas markets as the global equity rout intensified amid coronavirus-triggered recession fears.

However, the rupee survived the equity onslaught and ended at Rs 74.24 to the dollar, up 1 paise against Rs 74.25 on Monday. Gold prices fell Rs 80 to Rs 3,719 per 10 gm in New Delhi.

Oil is trading just above $30 a barrel on Tuesday. Analysts feared more declines as coronavirus hits demand and Saudi Arabia and Russia battle for market share.

After opening on a positive note, the 30-share BSE Sensex traded modestly higher for a majority of the session, but succumbed to a sudden sell-off in the last hour of trade.

It finally closed 810.98 points, or 2.58 per cent lower, at 30579.09, after moving 1,653 points during the day.

Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty slumped 230.35 points, or 2.50 per cent, to finish at 8967.05. Nifty has ended below the key 9000-level after March 2017.

Global markets reeled after Wall Street suffered its worst crash since the “Black Monday” in October 1987, with the US Fed's emergency rate cut failing to lift investor sentiment amid the drumbeat of negative news surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unabated foreign fund outflows and a weak rupee further weighed on domestic bourses, traders said.

According to traders, value-buying lifted benchmarks during the first half of the session, but the gains could not be sustained as markets succumbed to coronavirus-led fears of an impending recession.

“The US markets are falling on a daily basis and now have lost more than $16 trillion since the late February peak. Its a global phenomenon and our markets are also following the trend. Today, again large-cap stocks came under selling pressure,” Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities said.