Equity benchmark Sensex sank nearly 3,000 points to hit itslower circuit limit in morning session on Monday, triggering a 45-minutetrading freeze as coronavirus-led lockdowns across the world stoked fears of amassive global recession.
After opening 2,718 points lower, the BSE barometer plunged2,991.85 points or 10 per cent to 26,924.11.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 842.45 points, or 9.63 percent, to 7,903.
As an automatic mechanism to freefall in the market, when anexchange plunges 10 per cent before 1 pm, trading is halted on stock exchangesfor 45 minutes.
All Sensex components were trading in the red, with AxisBank tanking up to 20 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, BajajFinance, Hero MotoCorp and M&M.
According to traders, extreme lockdown measures taken bygovernment in India and world over has put immense pressure in investorsentiment.
As the virus cases climbed, the central and stategovernments in the country decided to lock down 75 districts from whereCovid-19 cases have been reported to break the chain of transmission, and theHealth Ministry said states would earmark hospitals to exclusively treatcoronavirus patients.
Putting in place a tighter framework to curb high marketvolatility, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday announcedrevising market wide position limit for stocks in the derivatives segment,flexing dynamic price bands and other measures for one month starting fromMarch 23.
These steps would limit short selling of shares as well asreduce volatility in individual stocks.
Stock exchanges and regulatory officials, however, dismissedsuggestions about curtailment of trading hours in wake of the pandemic.
Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul plunged up to 4 percent, while Tokyo was trading with gains.
The rupee too plunged 92 paise against US dollar to 76.12.
Meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures fell 3 per cent to USD26.17 per barrel.
The number of global Covid-19 infections has shot past3,00,000. Worldwide fatalities topped 14,000.
Cases in India rose to 390 over the weekend, according tothe Health Ministry.