Pain for stocks intensified for the seventh day as the Sensex went below the key 26,000 mark to nearly one-month low by plunging 263 points on fears of a likely hit to corporate earnings due to currency recall and absence of any major trigger.
This is its longest decline since March 2015. Global indices too remained weak in the wake of overnight losses on the Wall Street and worries over Italy's struggling banking sector, which depressed the Indian market. Market participants were restrained as they waited for outcome of the crucial two-day GST Council meet.
The Nifty cracked below the 8,000-level and closed at its nearly one-month low, whose fall duration was the longest since June 2015. Starting lower, the Sensex hit a low of 25,940.14, but recovered marginally to close the day lower by 262.78 points, or 1 per cent, at 25,979.60.