Benchmarks Sensex and Nifty fell sharply on Tuesday, backed by weak global cues amid a historic crash in WTI crude oil prices. Sensex traded 1,210 points lower at 30,431 and Nifty fell 340 points to 8,920.

The market opened lower as US crude prices nosedived below the $0 a barrel mark for the first time ever. Experts said investors turned cautious over concerns of economic toll from the coronavirus, corporate earnings reports and other key economic data scheduled to be released in the upcoming week.

Here's a look at ten things to know about the fall in Sensex and Nifty today:

- Oil Marketing Companies were among the top laggards today, with ONGC, RIL, Indian Oil, GAIL, BPCL, Hindustan Petroleum falling in the range of 2-5%.

- On the contrary, pharma stocks gained in today's trade, with Dr Reddy's,  Sun Pharma and Cipla among the top gainers on Nifty, rising nearly 4% each.

- Top laggards in Sensex pack included Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and ONGC. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, HUL, Asian Paints and ITC were among the top gainers today.

- US markets started the week on a negative note, as WTI crude prices turned negative for the first time ever. Tracking bearishness, Asian counterparts fell nearly 2% today, with SGX Nifty trading 250 points lower at 9,006 level.

- On Monday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery, the benchmark for US oil, nosedived below the $0 a barrel mark for the first time ever. Oil prices collapsed to historic lows as the global lockdown saw fuel demand falling and storage facilities reaching their limits.

- After crashing to a historic low, oil prices rose slightly bouncing back to the green territory today. WTI futures were up $21.96 at minus $15.67 a barrel. May futures contracts are due to expire today. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. While Brent Crude was trading 2.6% higher at $26.24 per barrel, NYMEX was at $1.66 per barrel, rising 39.29 cents.

- Companies set to announce their earnings and likely to affect the market movement today are CRISIL, ACC, GTPL Hathway, GSS Infotech and Den Networks. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has announced that it has postponed March quarterly results to April 25 that were due today.

- The rupee on Tuesday fell to an all-time low of 30 paise to 76.83 against the US dollar in opening session. This was on the back of dollar index crossing past the 100 level mark to 100.15. The local currency had settled at 76.53 against the US dollar yesterday.

- There are 24.8 lakh confirmed cases of Coronavirus worldwide and almost 1.70 lakh deaths from COVID-19 outbreak. The number of reported in India rose to 17,656 cases including 559 deaths and 2,841 recoveries.

- Yesterday, markets indices erased early gains and closed on a flat note. BSE Sensex closed 59 points higher at 31,648 and NSE Nifty ended unchanged (down 0.20 points) at 9,266.

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