Stocks went into a tailspin right at the start today after early trend suggested that the BJP and the Congress are locked in a tight race to win Gujarat.
The benchmark BSE Sensex tanked as much as 867 points to breach below the psychological 33,000-mark while the NSE Nifty plunged 258 points in the opening session within one hour of counting of votes for Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.
The 30-share index crashed by 867.34 points, or 2.59 per cent, to 32,595.63, with all sectoral indices led by realty, IT, teck, power and and banking trading in the negative zone with losses of up to 1.74 per cent.
The gauge had rallied 409.93 points in the previous two sessions after exit polls predicted BJP's win in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.
Also, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting sharply lower by 258.45 points, or 10,074.80.
The rupee crashed 68 paise to trade at 64.72 against the dollar, which dampened sentiment further.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)