India’s Sensex plunges to 20-month low

Taking back virtually all the gains of the past two years, the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex continued to slide as foreign investors pulled out funds and news of the debt crisis in Europe soured local sentiment, the Economic Times reported.

The index fell for the fourth straight day Wednesday, dropping 0.5% to its lowest close in nearly 20 months, as financial stocks continued to flounder a day after Moody's downgraded its credit rating for the State Bank of India.  The Sensex has lost around 5 percent in recent sessions.

Gone are the days when India could resist sneezing when U.S. and European markets catch cold.

Continuing foreign fund outflows amid lingering worries over global economic growth weighed despite firm Asian and European stocks after Europe's finance ministers agreed to safeguard euro zone banks from the spreading sovereign debt crisis, the paper said.