Director General Military Operations Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh

Mumbai, (IANS) : Indian equities took a sharp tumble on Thursday afternoon after the army said it conducted surgical strikes on terror camps along the border with Pakistan, inflicting “significant casualties”.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which was ruling strong in the morning after the unexpected production cuts agreed to by oil producing countries, took a fall of more than 500 points after the relevant briefing by the Indian Army.

“India cannot allow terrorists to operate across the LoC (Line of Control) and strike with impunity,” Director General Military Operations Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh told a hurriedly called press briefing here, soon after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security.

“The strikes were carried out based on specific and credible information,” he said.

Both the key indices plummeted by more than 1.5 per cent each.

All the 19 sub-indices of the BSE were trading in the red. Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in realty, power, industrials and healthcare sectors.

The key index recovered marginally a little later and was quoting at 27,845 points (at 12.55 p.m.) — down 447.71 points or 1.58 per cent from the previous close at 28,292.81 points.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) edged down 127.95 points, or 1.46 per cent, to 8,617.20 points.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 28,475.57 points and a low of 27,719.92 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth fell prey to the bears — with 2,148 declines and 155 advances.