BSE S&P Sensex was down by 1,148 points or 2.35 percent lower at 47,684 while the Nifty 50 dipped by 329 points or 2.25 percent to 14,289
Equity benchmark indices traded substantially lower during early hours on Monday as the country continued to report a record spike in daily Covid-19 cases.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 1,148 points or 2.35 percent lower at 47,684 while the Nifty 50 dipped by 329 points or 2.25 percent to 14,289.
Except for Nifty pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red zone with Nifty PSU bank crashing by 5.2 percent, private bank by 4.4 percent, financial service by 4 percent, realty by 4.3 percent and auto by 3.4 percent.
Among stocks, Axix Bank and ICICI Bank moved down by 5.2 percent each while Kotak Mahindra Bank cracked by 4.8 percent, and IndusInd Bank by 4.6 percent.
State Bank of India was down by 4.3 percent to Rs 325.25 per share and Punjab National Bank by 5.6 percent to Rs 32.90.
Bajaj Finance, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, and Tata Motors too traded over 3.6 percent lower. However, pharma majors Cipla and Dr. Reddy’s were up by 1.3 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, Asian shares hovered near one-and-a-half week highs helped by expectations monetary policy will remain accommodative the world over. Covid-19 vaccine rollouts also helped eased fears of another dangerous wave of coronavirus infections.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 1.2 percent last week and is up 5 percent so far this year.
South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4 percent while Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.4 percent.
