Stock market today witnessed a deep plunge, tanking around 650 points to crash below the 24,000-level on global growth worries and sharp dip in oil prices before regaining some lost ground to settle 418 points lower at 24,062.04.
Rupee added to the misery as it breached the 68-mark intra-day against the dollar for the first time since September 4, 2013.
The BSE Sensex resumed its downward spiral after taking a day's breather yesterday to hit a fresh 20-month low.
With this, the index has fallen to the weakest level since since May 16, 2014, the day the new government won a landslide mandate in general elections.
Global cues were largely bearish with massive sell-off in European and Asian markets after International Monetary Fund slashed its global growth forecast.
"Expectations of the market going downhill are likely to strengthen as the double whammy impact of oversupply in crude and the concerns in Chinese economy will dampen the investors' preference towards equities," said Vinod Nair Head-Fundamental Research of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
The 30-share Sensex after opening lower at 24,325.77, continued to slide and cracked the 24,000-mark to hit a low of 23,839.76. However, on fag-end buying, the index managed to close above 24,000-level, still down 417.80 points or 1.71 per cent at 24,062.04.
The gauge had gained 291.47 points in the previous session backed up by value-buying in select blue-chips.
The NSE Nifty after cracking the crucial 7,300-mark, settled 125.80 points or 1.69 per cent down at 7,309.30. Intra-day, it shuttled between 7,241.50 and 7,470.90.
In a quarterly update to its World Economic Outlook yesterday, IMF said the global economy will expand 3.4 per cent in 2016, down from an earlier estimated 3.6 per cent in October. It also trimmed its forecast for growth in 2017 to 3.6 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent three months ago.
Shares of heavyweight Reliance Industries fell by 3.76 per cent to close at Rs 1,004.35 despite posting its highest-ever quarterly net profit of Rs 7,290 crore for the three months period ended December.
Hong Kong and Japan led decline in Asian stocks. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 3.82 per cent. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Average fell 3.71 per cent and China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan fell 1.03-2.98 per cent.
European stocks also fell sharply as key indices in France, Germany and the UK were trading 2.68 per cent to 3.15 per cent down.
Back home, out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 27 scrips ended lower.
Adani Ports took the biggest hit as it plunged 5.53 per cent, followed by SBI 5.13 per cent, RIL (3.76 pc), Coal India (3.45 pc), Maruti (3.40 pc), Tata Motors (3.39 pc), Tata steel (2.63 pc), NTPC (2.26 pct), ONGC (2.25 pc), ICICI Bank (2.03 pc), HUL (1.83 pc) and HDFC Bank (1.77 pc).
From the gainers pack, Bajaj Auto rose 0.43 per cent, Hero MotoCorp perked up 0.21 per cent and Wipro gained 0.05 per cent.
"Bears continued to hammer the bourses on global sell-off and crude hitting multi-year lows. Relentless selling by foreign investors and depreciation in rupee raised investors' concerns," said Gaurav Jain Director at Hem Securities.
In broader markets, small-cap index fell by 2.04 per cent, while mid-cap ended 2.01 per cent lower.
Among BSE sectoral indexes realty fell by 3.49 per cent, followed by energy 3.10 per cent, metal (3.08 pc), power (2.39 pc), bankex (2.35 pc), oil&gas (2.31 pc), utilities (2.28 pc), industrials (2.21 pc) and finance (2.02 pc).
The market breadth turned negative as 2,105 stocks ended lower, 511 closed higher while 138 ruled steady.
The total turnover rose to Rs 3,088.57 crore from Rs 3,062.84 crore yesterday.
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