The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell sharply in trade on Monday as investors turned cautious and booked profits ahead of US elections amid rising cases of COVID-19 in European countries. The benchmarks opened lower and extended losses in afternoon trading on the back of a broad-based selling pressure led by losses in auto, metal and banking shares. The Sensex slumped as much as 737 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 11,711.70. Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and Infosys were among the top drags in the Sensex, they collectively wiped out over 250 points from the 30-share index.
The Sensex fell 540 points to close at 40,145 and Nifty 50 index dropped 163 points to settle at 11,768.
Global shares started the week on the back foot on Monday as surging coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States clouded the global economic outlook. In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 2.3 per cent, France’s CAC40 index plunged 0.66 per cent and England’s FTSE100 index declined 0.32 per cent.
US stock futures were also trading 1 per cent lower.
Back home, all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Metal index’s 3.5 per cent fall. Auto, banking, realty, media and energy indexes fell over 1.5 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index tumbled nearly 2 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 1 per cent.
Hero MotoCorp was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped nearly 7 per cent to Rs 2,902. Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, UPL, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra, Eicher Motors, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank also fell between 2.75-6 per cent.
On the flipside, Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 2 per cent after the bank informed exchanges that its profit rose 27 per cent to Rs 2,184 crore. IndusInd Bank, SBI Life, Larsen & Toubro and Power Grid, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC were also among the notable gainers.
The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 1,678 shares closed lower while 1,003 ended higher on the BSE.