The stock market saw a massive plunge on Monday, as Sensex dived 812 points on the first day of the week, while the Nifty closed below the 11,300-mark on the first day of the week. The massive drop in the indexes came in tandem with a global selloff after a resurgence of Coronavirus cases across Europe stoking fears of another round of lockdowns and its economic impacts.
The market capitalisation of all the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed companies fell to Rs 1,54,76,979.16 crore on Monday, wiping off Rs 4.23 lakh crore of investor wealth. Marking a fall for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex index ended 811.68 points or 2.09% lower at 38,034.14. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty tumbled 254.40 points or 2.21% to finish at 11,250.55.
The top loser in the Sensex pack was the IndusInd Bank, tanking 8.67%, followed by companies like Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, M&M, Maruti, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance. So far, at the end of the day, only three index components ended in the green, which were Kotak Bank, Infosys and TCS, rising up to 0.86%.
As the Covid-19 cases have been resurging in several European countries; Denmark, Greece and Spain have imposed fresh restrictions on public activities to tackle a surge in infections. The UK too is considering another nation-wide lockdown, prompting investors in Europe to offload travel, consumption and banking stocks.
This sentiment has impacted hard on the Indian market as well. All sectoral indices ended in the red, with BSE telecom, realty, metal, auto, healthcare and basic materials cracking up to 5.77%. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices too crashed as much as 3.61%.
Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 2.04% lower at $42.27 per barrel on Monday. In the forex market, the rupee strengthened 7 paise and closed at 73.38 against the US dollar.
