Sensex opens at 27,383.22, down by 2532.74 points

Domestic stock markets plunged more than 9 per cent in early trade on Monday and stared at a circuit breaker as India entered a lockdown joining several countries in their fight against the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The S&P BSE Sensex index fell as much as 2,718.15 points to hit 27,197.81 in the first few minutes of trade, and the broader NSE Nifty 50 plunged to as low as 7,941.65, down 803.8 points from the previous close. A deep selloff across sectors – led by banking, auto and metal stocks – hurt the markets.

At 9:31 am, the Sensex traded 2,450.07 points – or 8.19 per cent – lower at 27,465.89 and the Nifty was down 696.30 points – or 7.96 per cent – at 8,049.15.

The Nifty Bank index – comprising shares in 12 major lenders in the country including SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank – was down 8.54 per cent at the time. The financial sector has a weightage of 42 per cent in the Nifty.

Besides Nifty Bank, all other 10 sectoral indices on the NSE traded lower, and so did all of the 50 stocks in the Nifty basket.

Worst hit shares in the Nifty index at the time were Bajaj Finance, Axis bank, Maruti Suzuki, UltraTech Cement, Shree Cement and ICICI Bank, trading between 9.99 per cent and 13.28 per cent lower.

HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were the biggest drags on the Sensex, together accounting for a fall of more than 800 points in the index.