Indian stock market witnessed a freefall on Tuesday with both the BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 closing below the psychological levels of 31,000 and 9,000, respectively.

The Sensex lost over 1,000 points by the end of the day's trade. Weakness in the domestic indices was in line with the bear run across the global markets, after crude oil prices in the US in an unprecedented development fell below zero and turned negative.

On Tuesday, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 8,981.45, lower by 280.40 points or 3.03 per cent from its previous close.

The Sensex closed at 30,636.71, lower by 1,011.29 points or 3.20 per cent from the previous close of 31,648. It had opened at 30,836.19 and recorded an intra-day high of 30,900.12 and a low of 30,378.26 points.

The historic plunge in the WTI crude oil prices in the US was the major factor for the rout in global equity markets.

Due to high supplies and lower offtake amid the coronavirus crisis and the worldwide standstill, the US has run out of storage for the commodity posing a major challenge for the market.

Currently, the May contract of WTI crude on the NYMEX is at -$4.47 per barrel.