Equity market benchmarks S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 extended early losses on Monday, led by declines in banking, financial services and metal shares. The indices opened lower as a rise in domestic coronavirus cases and worries over a second wave of infections in China sapped investors’ appetite for riskier assets. As of Monday, COVID-19 cases in India surged above 3,32,400 and deaths were more than 9,500. India is the fourth-worst affected country in the world. The Sensex fell as much as 659 points and Nifty slumped below important psychological level of 9,800.

At 10:46 am, the Sensex was down 566 points or 1.68 per cent at 33,214 and Nifty fell 1.73 per cent or 172 points to 9,800.

India recorded 11,502 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of cases to 3,32,424, according to data from the Union Health Ministry till Monday morning. The death count rose to 9,520 with 325 fatalities in the last one day.

All sector gauges barring the index of pharma shares were trading lower, led by a more than 3 per cent fall each in the Nifty Bank and the Private Bank. The Nifty Financial Services, Auto, Metal, PSU Bank and Realty sector gauges also fell between 1 per cent and 2.65 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares traded on a mixed note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index last seen trading 0.9 per cent lower while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up 0.5 per cent.

IndusInd Bank was the top Nifty loser, sliding 6 per cent to Rs 497. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, HDFC, NTPC, Hero MotoCorp, Larsen & Toubro, Grasim Industries and Titan were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Hindalco, Zee Entertainment, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro and Vedanta were among the gainers.