After a brief stop on Friday, S&P BSE Sensex and BSE Nifty-50 continued their downward trend on Monday morning as both domestic benchmark indices tanked. S&P BSE Sensex was down more than 1,800 points on opening while the 50-stock NSE Nifty slipped below the 10,000 mark, plunging 500 points. As bears continued to keep the bulls at bay on Dalal Street, investors lost Rs 6.25 lakh crore on Monday, adding to the Rs 16 lakh crore that investors have already seen vanish from the equity market in terms of market capitalisation since the beginning of March.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 123 lakh crore on Monday morning down from Rs 129 lakh crore on Friday evening. The fall in markets is nudged by the scare of Coronavirus which has now infected more than 100 people in India and taken two lives. The deadly Coronavirus has been spreading across the globe peaking fears of a recession. The fall is also aided by the fall in crude oil prices as Saudi Arabia and Russia lock horns on pricing strategy of the black gold. Equity markets have lost more than Rs 31 lakh crore since the beginning of this year as shares continued to react to jolts, first by the budget then the global scare of Coronavirus.
At the end of last week, S&P BSE Sensex jumped 4,700 jumps, staging a dramatic recovery amidst a volatile market. This surge came after a 45-minute trading halt that was imposed on the stock exchanges after NSE Nifty-50 tanked 10 per cent on Friday morning.
None of the 30 stocks that constitute the S&P BSE Sensex were trading in the green on Monday. IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser, down by 10 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank that tanked more than 8 per cent, HDFC that slipped 8 per cent and Axis Bank down by 7.5 per cent. Interestingly, all the biggest losers on S&P BSE Sensex have decided to invest in the Yes Bank Restructuring Scheme 2020, in a bid to bail-out the troubled private-sector lender.