Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices closed nearly 1.5 per cent lower on Monday amid fall in global markets due to rise in crude oil prices and worries over the likely extension of COVID-19 lockdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on Tuesday at 10 am. The 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus ends tomorrow and Modi is likely to talk about its possible extension.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 470 points or 1.51 per cent at 30,690 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 118 points or 1.3 per cent at 8,994.
Except for Nifty pharma and metal, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty realty down by 4.8 per cent, financial service by 3 per cent, auto by 2.4 per cent and FMCG by 1.5 per cent.
Among stocks, realty major DLF Ltd closed 7 per cent lower at Rs 139.20 per share. Bajaj Finance fell by 10.2 per cent to wind up the day at Rs 2,290 per unit.
Bajaj Finserv dropped by 6.8 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra by nearly 5 per cent, Titan by 4.6 per cent and Wipro by 3.6 per cent. Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, Britannia and Tech Mahindra too traded with a negative bias.
However, Larsen & Toubro was up by 6.3 per cent, Hindalco by 6 per cent, Bharti Airtel by 4.4 per cent and Dr Reddy’s by 3.8 per cent.
Meanwhile, global shares fell as investors looked for more signs of economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. The Nikkei fell by 2.33 per cent while South Korean shares dropped by 1.88 per cent.
