Mumbai: Equity indices Sensex and Nifty are trading 10.6% lower, backed by heavy sell off in index heavyweights like RIL, ICICI bank, Maruti on Monday's afternoon trading session.
Sensex is trading 3599.09 points or 12.03 percent down at 26,316.87. Nifty is trading below 7,800-level, Nifty is trading 1,035.20 points ot 11.84 percent down at 7,710.25.
Stock exchanges paused trading for 45 minutes after Sensex plunged 10 per cent, hitting its lower circuit limit, within the first hour of opening of the session.
As an automatic mechanism to curb freefall in the market, trading is halted in the market for 45 minutes when an exchange plunges 10 per cent before 1 pm.
Continuing its downward spiral, domestic BSE Sensex was trading 3,185.84 points, down 10.65 per cent at 26,730.12. It hit an intra-day low of 26,645.83.
Axis Bank was the top loser on Sensex, cracking up to 21 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement and Kotak Bank.
Cases in India rose to 390 over the weekend, according to the Health Ministry.
