Sensex tanks 806.89 points, Nifty closes at 11,829.40; Tata Steel top loser

Mumbai: Indian indices on Monday (February 24) plummeted amid rising concerns over Chinese coronavirus epidemic. The BSE Sensex ended down 806.69 points, or 1.96 per cent, at 40,363.23, while the broader Nifty closed down by 242.85 points, or 2.01 per cent, at 11,838.60.

Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, followed by ONGC, Maruti, Titan, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp.

Among the sectors, metals plunged over 5 per cent followed by the auto index which fell over 3 per cent. 

Notably, fear of further disruption in economic activity owing to the jump in coronavirus related deaths drove the prices of safe haven assets like Gold to a record high and pushed the oil prices and global equities lower. 

Indian benchmark equity index, Sensex lost nearly 800 points during the afternoon trade. At 2.55 pm, the Sensex traded at 40,491.46, lower by 678.66 points or 1.65 per cent. The broader Nifty slipped over 200 points to 11,867.50. Sensex had opened above the 41,000 point mark.

Asian share indexes were also a sea of red. Korea`s KOPSI Index slipped nearly 4 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.28 per cent. Besides, Australia`s benchmark index slid 2.2 per cent while New Zealand was about 1.3 per cent lower.

South Korea and Italy raised alert due to the soaring Coronavirus cases. South Korea reported its seventh coronavirus death and 161 new confirmed cases on Monday, bringing the total number to 763.

Risky asset classes like equities traded lower across the globe as Coronavirus related death jumped past 2,600. The deadly virus has infected more than 77,000 people in China and was described by Chinese President Xi Jinping as the "largest public health emergency since the founding of the country".

Gold`s record-breaking run continued on Monday as investors sought more and more safe haven assets over increased uncertainty due to soaring Coronavirus cases. Gold futures for April delivery topped the Rs 43,000 per 10 gm mark for the first time.

Global oil prices reversed course over worries that the spread of virus will dent global growth. Global oil benchmark, Brent, which jumped to $60 a barrel last week following a decline in fresh cases of Coronavirus, tumbled over 3.23 per cent to $ 56.61 barrel mark on Monday.

(With Agency Inputs)