The domestic stock markets were hammered down, today. At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex plummeted a mammoth 855 points–its worst single-day fall in five-and-a-half years–to close below the 27,000-mark, at 26,987. The markets plunged on heavy, across-the-board selling by investors, with all the BSE sectoral indices taking a pounding.

The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange tanked 251 points, or 3 percent, to 8,127. The broader market also took a hammering, with the BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices slumping 3 percent, each. Investor wealth was eroded by nearly 3 trillion rupees during the day's trading.

Key Asian markets in Japan Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore also suffered large losses of between 1 percent and 3 percent, today, after stocks on Wall Street took a big beating, overnight.