Trading Halted For 45 Minutes As Sensex, Nifty Plunge 10% Amid Coronavirus Lockdowns

Sensex, Nifty plunge 10% to hit lower circuit, triggering trading halt Trading to resume at 10:58 am, pre-opening session at 10:43 am Circuit breakers meant to protect investors against abysmal falls

Edited by Sandeep Singh (with inputs from agencies)

23 Mar 2020, 10:25 AM IST

A deep selloff across sectors - led by banking, auto and metal stocks - hurt the markets

Monday's trading halt was a second within a period of seven trading sessions, as world markets continued to suffer the worst selloff since the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
Trading will resume at 10:58 am, with a pre-opening session at 10:43 am. Imposed by market regulators, circuit breakers are aimed at protecting investors against abysmal falls. (Also Read: Recovery Will Take A Long Time, Say Analysts)
The Nifty Bank index - comprising stocks of 12 major lenders in the country including heavyweights SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank - was down 12.74 per cent.
Besides Nifty Bank, all other 10 sectoral indices on the National Stock Exchange suffered losses till the trading halt, and so did all of the 50 components in the Nifty basket of shares.
The Sensex opened 2,307.16 points lower at 27,608.80 and the Nifty started the day at 7,945.70, down 799.75 points from its previous close.
Several states in India will remain under a lockdown till March 31, as the country has registered 341 cases of coronavirus, with seven deaths as of Sunday.
Investors are assessing the effectiveness of policy measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak amid fears that the world economy may enter into recession; expect more correction ahead, say analysts.
Asian stock markets sank as a rising tide of national lockdowns threatened to overwhelm policymakers' frantic efforts to cushion what is likely to be a deep global recession. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 3.8 per cent, with New Zealand's market shedding a record 10 per cent as the government closed all non-essential businesses. Shanghai blue chips dropped 2.3 per cent, though Japan's Nikkei rose 0.8 per cent aided perhaps by expectations of more aggressive asset buying by the Bank of Japan.
In a foretaste of the pain to come, E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 dived 5 per cent at the open to be limit down, while EUROSTOXXX 50 futures tumbled 6.4 per cent.
The rapidly spreading virus has claimed more than 14,000 lives globally with more than 300,000 infections, disrupting business and ravaging markets worldwide..