Update on the stock market: Stocks suffered heavy losses in opening trade with the BSE Sensex dropping below the 34,000- mark by slumping about 564 points and Nifty sinking over 1.6 per cent on widespread sell-off triggered by a rout in global equity markets.


The BSE 30-share barometer dived 563.51 points, or 1.63 per cent, to 33,849.65, wiping out its gains of 330.45 points in the previous session. All sectoral indices led by bankex, teck and IT slipped into the negative zone with losses of up to 1.76 per cent down. The broad-based NSE Nifty was trading lower by 178.65 points, or 1.68 per cent, at 10,398.20.


Other Asian markets plunged up to 4.24 per cent after Wall Street routed for the second time this week on worries over rising US interest rates. With the volatility continuing to hound equity markets, US index the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 4.2 per cent, the broad-based S&P 500 plummeted 3.8 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index sank 3.9 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 3.62 per cent, Japan's Nikkei shed 3.22 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index down 4.24 per cent in their late morning deals.


Back home, ICICI Bank dropped the most by 2.75 per cent, followed by ITC 1.9 per cent, HDFC 1.85 per cent, Axis Bank 1.66 per cent and Larsen and Toubro 1.6 per cent. Infosys, TCS, Reliance, HDFC BankKotak Bank, SBI IndusInd Bank Hindustan Unileverand Bharti Airtel also dropped up to 1.5 per cent. -- PTI