Sensex cracks 1,407 pts as Covid-19 fears resurface; Nifty holds 13,300

Investors dumped domestic equities on Monday as profit booking gripped the markets. Additionally, panic selling, owing to the global rout seen in the Asian and European stocks, fretted investors. In the intra-day trade, the S&P BSE Sensex breached below the 45,000-mark and sunk 2,037 points to hit a low of 44,923 level. Nifty, on the other hand, tanked over 600 points to hit a low of 13,131-mark. 

From the day's high, the Sensex index dropped 2,133 points and logged it's sharpest intra-day fall since April 2020. The Nifty index, on the other hand, lost 646 points from day's high.

At close, the Sensex settled at 45,554 levels, down 1,407 points or 3 per cent. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index ended at 13,328 levels, down 432 points or 3.14 per cent. India VIX, the volatility gauge, jumped over 23% in the intra-day deals to hit a high of 23.4 levels. This was the index's biggest jump since July 18.

There were only sellers at the bourses with all the 30 constituents of the Sensex index ending the day in the red. ONGC plunged 9 per cent, while IndusInd Bank and M&M (down 7 per cent each), and SBI (down 6 per cent) ended the day as the top laggards on the Sensex.

Individually, aviation stocks, InterGlobe Aviaition and SpiceJet, sunk up to 10 per cent on the BSE after India suspended flights from the UK till December 31 as the country entered a tougher lockdown to fight a new strain of coronavirus

Sectorally, Nifty PSU Bank index cracked 7 per cent, Nifty Realty index skid 6 per cent, and Nifty Metal index dropped 5 per cent on the NSE.

Global markets

European shares fell 2 per cent on Monday, the dollar strengthened and market volatility surged amid growing unease over the economic impact of a new coronavirus strain in Britain which has seen several European countries shut their borders to the UK.

German shares fell around 2 per cent, while pan-European travel and leisure stocks lost more than 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian shares outside Japan dipped 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.4 per cent, off its highest since April 1991.

(With inputs from Reuters)