It turned out to be a Black Friday for the global equity markets on December 23 as stocks reeled under selling pressure.
The Indian stock market had been resilient until earlier this week when the selloff started. The benchmark 30-pack Sensex fell 981 points, or 1.6 percent, to close at 59,845. The broader Nifty 50 dropped 321 points, or 1.8 percent, to 17,807.
A day earlier, the US markets reversed their positive trend and closed with losses. Rising fears of economic recession and the US Federal Reserve continuing to increase interest rates to battle inflation dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq lower by more than 2 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 lost more than 1 percent each.
All sectoral indices in India, including the broader market, ended in the red. The India VIX index, which indicates the degree of volatility traders expect over the next 30 days, was up 6.4 percent to 16.2 from 15.2.