Benchmark index BSE Sensex crashed over 1,700 points in morning trade on Monday, as sentiment in the equity markets remained subdued due to the continuous rise in coronavirus cases in the country.

At 12.05 pm, the index was down 3.54%, or 1,756.39 points, at 47,834.93. The broader 50-share NSE Nifty had also lost more than 3.5% and was trading 520.95 points lower at 14,313.9.

Meanwhile, the rupee too, continued its decline, falling to a near eight-month low of 74.96 against the US dollar, Reuters reported.

“Since the second wave of the pandemic is turning out worse than expected, there is profound uncertainty about its impact on the economy and markets,” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services told the news agency.

All sectoral sub-indices, with the exception of the Nifty Pharma, were lodging losses in mid-day trading. The Nifty Bank and the Nifty Auto sub-indices had gone down by up to 5%.

The markets had suffered heavy losses last Monday too, when the country saw the single-day rise in coronavirus cases going past the 1 lakh-mark for the first time. The Sensex had then slipped by up to 1,450 points in intra-day trade before settling at 49,159.32, a decline of 870.51 points from the previous closing mark. Since then, however, the number of daily cases have breached the 1 lakh-mark on six out of seven days, registering new peaks on each of those occasions. The Sensex has lost over 1,000 points since last Monday.

Minutes before the market opened on Monday, India reported 1,68,912 new cases of coronavirus, as the number of active cases rose by nearly a lakh from Sunday’s tally.