SunstarTV Bureau: Amid the raising cases of COVID-19 in the country, the benchmark equity indices on the BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened nearly 2 percent lower on Monday.
The S&P BSE Sensex cracked over 1,000 points in the early trade while the Nifty 50 on the NSE fell slipped over 300 points. At 9:23 am, the Sensex was trading at 48,539.30, down 1,052.02 points (2.12 per cent), while the Nifty was down 322.10 points (2.17 per cent) at 14,512.75.
Financial stocks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) were the top contributors to the fall in the BSE benchmark in the early trade.
The key Bank Nifty was trading over 4 per cent lower weighed by RBL Bank, Punjab National Bank and IndusInd Bank. The Nifty Auto index too was down 4 per cent dragged by Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Motherson Sumi Systems.
Notably, India on Sunday reported 1,52,879 new Covid-19 cases and 839 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry today.
