Sensex reacts to govt decision to revoke Article 370

Home Minister Amit Shah proposes bill to revoke Article 370 which accords special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The Indian benchmark indices reacted sharply to the decision slipping more than 600 points in the early morning session.

The minister announced that the government proposes to do away with all clauses of Article 370 applicable to J&K. The government proposes to reorganise the state of Jammu and Kashmir and carve out two separate Union territories. J&K will be Union Territory (UT) with legislature, while Ladakh will a UT without legislature.

Shah also proposed to extend 10 per cent reservation for economically weak citizens of the state. As a run-up to this announcement, the government had imposed restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC in Srinagar district from Sunday midnight. Schools and colleges in many districts were ordered to remain close on Monday.

After the Shah's statement in the Rajya Sabha, the benchmark index Sensex recovered a bit and was trading at 36,573.03, down by 545.19 points or 1.47 per cent at 11:28 hours. The Nifty50 index was trading at 10,832.15, down by 165.20 points or 1.50 per cent. The Nifty Bank was trading at 27,526.70, down by 678.25 points or 2.40 per cent on Monday.