PremiumMUMBAI: As investors are increasingly jittery about the rise in covid cases in the country leading to uncertainties, markets are succumbing to major sell-off on Monday. Most consumer stocks have been dumped by investors with the benchmark indices sliding over 3% in afternoon trade. At 1:18 pm, the BSE Sensex lost 1,751.97 points or 3.53% at 47,839.35. The 50-share index Nifty was at 14,310.00, down 524.85 or 3.54%.
Most consumer focused stocks such as consumer discretionary and realty were down nearly 5%. BSE Realty were down over 7%. BSE FMCG index was down 2% while BSE Bankex slipped 5% on Monday afternoon trade. The banking index hit a fresh four-month low on concerns of weak asset quality increase.
Premium 
Premium 
Premium Also Read | The silent rise of India’s private ports
Gaurav Garg, head of research, CapitalVia Global Research said, “The market opened with a gap down due to concerns about rising covid cases in the country and fears of lockdown in some states weighed on sentiment throughout most of the sector. US markets closed on a flat note last Friday. Asian markets were trading mostly in red. Indian markets tried to gain some momentum in the early hours of the market, but with the benchmark index breaching 14,500 mark, the selling pressure witnessed further."
Among Sensex stocks, except Dr Reddy’s all were in deep. IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, M&M and Axis Bank were down 6-8%.
The Indian rupee on Monday weakened past the 75-mark to hit a nine-month low against the US dollar on continued selling pressure from foreign investors in local equities and bond markets. The currency opened at ₹74.96 and touched a low of ₹75.15 a dollar—a level last seen on 16 July 2020. At 10.30am, the home currency was trading at ₹75.07, down 0.43% from its previous close.
Kaynat Chainwala, fundamental research analyst-currencies, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers, said, “Indian Rupee spot slipped past the 75-mark to nine month low of 75.15 today as rising covid cases sparked fears of a complete lockdown in Maharashtra and a few other states, dampening hopes of a faster recovery and increasing prospects of RBI’s ultra-loose monetary policy for a longer period."
"Already, the domestic currency has been battered by 2% since the RBI unexpectedly announced QE style G-sec acquisition programme (G-SAP) last week with the first auction aggregating ₹25,000 crore to be held on April 15, 2021. This week, rupee is likely to weaken further as investors cautiously await India’s industrial output, manufacturing output, trade balance and inflation figures coupled with the first G-SAP auction scheduled on Thursday," Chainwala added.
Click here to read the Mint ePaperMint is now on Telegram. Join Mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated with the latest business news.