Stocks traded in the red zone in the opening session on Tuesday as equity benchmark indices dropped by 2.7% during the early hours on this day, amid the backdrop of crude oil prices in the US slipping below zero dollars a barrel.

At 10:15 AM, SENSEX had dropped nearly 900 points and stood at 30,778 while Nifty 50 slipped more than 240 points to 9,013. Both market indices had dropped around 2.7%.

Sensex components, even index heavyweights like Reliance Industries fell by 3.93% to Rs 1,195.60 per share. Metal majors Hindalco dropped by 8.9% at Rs 106.10 per share while Tata Steel lost by 7.1% and Vedanta by 6.6%.

All NSE components were trading in the red, except for  Nifty pharma and FMCG. In fact, Nifty metal was down by 5.2%, auto by 5.1% and private bank by 4.3%.

Auto major Maruti skidded by 6.8 % to Rs 4,964.70 per share and Tata Motors by 5.2 %.Private lenders IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank dipped by 6.7 %, 6.1 %, and 5.8 % respectively.

However, those which gained were Dr Reddy, Cipla, Nestle India, Hindustan Lever and ITC.

Meanwhile, Asia shares were in the negative zone after an overnight tumble at Wall Street with US crude futures turned negative for the first time in history. However, it bounced back into positive territory this morning.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell half a %. Japan's Nikkei fell by 2.26 % while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost by 2.38 % and South Korea's Kospi slipped by 1.67 %.

Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 592 points lower at 23,650, the S&P 500 slipped by 1.8 % to end its trading day at 2,823 and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1 % to close at 8,561. 

In the US, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the world, a major shock came from another front on Monday, when oil prices crashed into negative territory after the coronavirus lockdowns around the globe squelched demand. US demonstrators rallied in more state capitals demanding the reopening of the world's biggest economy.

The unprecedented collapse of oil prices, which traded in negative territory for the first time ever, is sure to fuel calls for a quicker unshackling of the global economy.

Governments across the world are now debating how and when to ease lockdowns that have kept more than half of humanity -- 4.5 billion people -- confined to their homes and crippled the global economy.

(With ANI inputs)