Black money measures, Donald Trump win send Sensex crashing, ends 339 points down

Mumbai: Markets went off the rails as Sensex crashed 1,689 points and Nifty over 541 points in early session after a surprise Donald Trump win and the government's move to withdraw high value notes, but managed to pull back towards the fag-end to close 339 points lower.

After opening lower at 26,251.39, the BSE benchmark Sensex continued free-fall in line with melting global stocks and cracked the 26,000-mark to touch a low of 25,902.45.

However, value-buying in key bluechips helped the index recover about 1,495 points to touch the day's high of 27,397.38 before closing the session 338.61 points, or 1.23 percent down, at 27,252.53.

The NSE Nifty, which dipped below the 8,100-mark, trimmed most of the initial losses and settled 111.55 points, or 1.31 percent, down at 8,432. Intra-day, the index hit a low of 8,002.25 and high of 8,476.20.

Broader markets also performed weak with the BSE small-cap index falling 2.78 percent and mid-cap down 2.03 percent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 86.66 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

In a surprise move yesterday, the government banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in a bid to curb black money.

In a stunning result, billionaire businessman Donald Trump today beat seasoned politician Hillary Clinton in the knife-edge polls, defying the odds to become the 45th US President after starting off as a rank political outsider.

Globally, Japan's Nikkei tumbled 5.36 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.16 percent. Shanghai Composite shed 0.62 percent. Europe was also in red with London-based FTSE index down 0.14 percent, Paris's CAC fell 1.10 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX down 1.03 percent in their early session.