Rising COVID cases spook markets! Sensex tanks over 400 points

New Delhi: Mounting COVID-19 cases continued to spook domestic investors on Monday, with equity indices opening in the red tracking selloff in financial stocks amid a negative trend in Asian equities.

The 30-share BSE index sank 403.45 points or 0.83 percent to 48,378.91 in early trade. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty tanked 97.05 points or 0.66 percent to 14,534.05.

Major losers in the Sensex pack were Titan, SBI, RIL, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserve, Bharti Airtel, Ultrachem, Kotak Bank and HDFC, falling upto 3.62 percent.

On the other hand, major gainers were Maruti, Bajaj Auto, HUL, Nestle, Powergrid, IndusInd Bank, M&M, Sun Pharma, Asian Paint, HCL Tech, TCS, and DrReddy, rising upto 1.83 percent.

Among Asian peers, MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was all but flat after taking a bit of a spill on Friday. Japan`s Nikkei was shut for a holiday, but Nikkei futures edged up 0.2%. Wall Street extended its bull run with Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures both up 0.3%, said a Reuters report.

The dollar index stood at 91.253 and off a two-month trough of 90.422, though it still ended April with a loss of 2%. Meanwhile, Oil prices ran into profit-taking on Friday but still ended the month with gains of 6% to 8%. Brent was last up 16 cents at $66.92 a barrel, while U.S. crude firmed 18 cents to $63.76 per barrel, Reuters added.