Equity benchmark indices traded weak during early hours on Monday in line with Asian peers in times of negativity amid the coronavirus outbreak.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down by 575 points (1.93%) to 29,241 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 178 points or (2.06%) to 8,482.
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Except for Nifty IT and pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty auto down by 4.1%, metal and realty by 3.4% each, PSU bank by 2.4% and financial service by 2.9%.
Among stocks, Bajaj Finance was the top loser after clocking a loss of 9.04% to Rs 2,312.60 per share.
Mahindra & Mahindra fell by 6.5%, Eicher Motors by 6.3%, Maruti Suzuki by 4.3% and Bajaj Auto by 4.2%.
The other prominent losers were Bajaj Finserv, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, ONGC and UPL.
However, Cipla, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, GAIL and Zee Entertainment traded with a positive bias.
Meanwhile, Asian shares slid and oil prices tumbled as fears mounted that the global shutdown for coronavirus pandemic could last for months.
The deadly COVID-19 had led to a blood bath in the various stock exchanges around the world. The benchmark BSE had lost more than 14,000 points in the month of March.
Projections for the global economy in 2020 and the lockdown continues to depress the investors.
Globally, all markets are experiencing stressed conditions and India is not an exception. It is well integrated with the world economy and will continue to experience bearish sentiments for the times to come as total positive cases reach above 7.23 lakh.
(With Agency Inputs)