Sensex pegs morning's free fall, ends day 339 points lower

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 of the day to close 339 points lower.

After opening lower at 26,251.39, the BSE benchmark Sensex continued its 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 blue chips 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 per cent 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 per cent, 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 per cent and mid-cap down 2.03 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 86.66 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.

In a surprise move on Tuesday, 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 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 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.16 per cent. Shanghai Composite shed 0.62 per cent. Europe was also in the red with London-based FTSE index down 0.14 per cent, Paris's CAC fell 1.10 per cent, while Frankfurt's DAX down 1.03 per cent in their early session.