Stocks crack as second wave of COVID intensifies

Equity benchmark indices traded substantially lower during early hours on Monday as the country continued to report a record spike in daily COVID-19 cases.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SandP Sensex was down by 1,148 points or 2.35 per cent lower at 47,684 while the Nifty 50 dipped by 329 points or 2.25 per cent to 14,289.

Except for Nifty pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red zone with Nifty PSU bank crashing by 5.2 per cent, private bank by 4.4 per cent, financial service by 4 per cent, realty by 4.3 per cent and auto by 3.4 per cent.

Among stocks, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank moved down by 5.2 per cent each while Kotak Mahindra Bank cracked by 4.8 per cent and IndusInd Bank by 4.6 per cent.