BSE Sensex tanked 2,460 points on Wednesday morning as Coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The carnage that has taken over 4,000 lives so far, entered Dalal Street and looted investors of Rs 10.64 lakh crore till noon. Market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 137.13 lakh crore at the end of trading on Wednesday and by 12 PM on Thursday the market capitalisation was down to 126.73 lakh crore. This comes a day after markets made modest gains on Wednesday.

Stocks across the globe were sent into a tailspin on Thursday morning on the back of WHO officially declaring Coronavirus as a pandemic and US President Donald Trump banning all travels from Europe in a bid to contain the deadly Virus that has taken over 30 lives in the US. Crude oil prices, after gaining for two consecutive days, were down yet again on Thursday morning. Brent Crude was trading down 5.3 per cent at $33.88 per barrel. 

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex slipped below 34,000- mark, dropping over 2,460 points, while Nifty 50 breached 10,000-mark and was trading 746 points lower at 9,711. None of the 30 stocks that make-up BSE Sensex were trading in the green. Tata Steel was the biggest loser down by 8.83 per cent, followed by Titan which was down by 8.12 per cent. Nifty sectoral indices on Nifty opened in red with Nifty PSU Bank index falling over 7.5 per cent helped by Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank

Indian equity markets’ fear gauge, India VIX was up 17 per cent, taking stock of the volatility in the equity markets. Share price of IndiGo fell over 10 per cent as the biggest domestic carrier in India pointed out that Coronavirus will impact its earnings. SpiceJet too was down 15 per cent.