Sensex plunges 667 points, Nifty ends below 10,900

Equity benchmark indices cracked by over 1.5% on Monday as investors fretted over the economic consequences of surging new coronavirus cases across the world.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex was down by 667.29 points or 1.77% at 36,940 while the NSE Nifty slipped by 181.85 points or 1.64% to 10,891.60.

Kotak Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, falling over 4 %, followed by IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, ONGC, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto. Titan, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, L&T and SBI were among the gainers.

Most sectoral indices at the NSE were in the red with Nifty private bank down by 2.9%, financial service by 2.2% and realty by 1.2%.

Among stocks, shares of Bandhan Bank slid by 10.6% to Rs 308.65 per share after reports said that its 34.56 crore shares -- or 21.5 % of total equity -- exchanged hands in 27 large trades.

IndusInd Bank was down by 3.7 %, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 3.5 % and Axis Bank by 2.9 %. The other prominent losers were UPL, HDFC Life, ONGC and GAIL. However, Tata Motors surged by 6.9 % to Rs 111.90 per share while Eicher Motors was up 0.9 %. 

Tata Steel along with HCL Technologies, Titan, Dr Reddy`s and Wipro too traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets were mixed as US lawmakers struggled to hammer out a new stimulus plan amid a global surge of new coronavirus cases. Japan`s Nikkei added gains of 2.24 % while Shanghai Composite moved up by 1.75 % but Hong Kong`s Hang Seng was down by 0.56 %. 

(With ANI inputs)