Indian equity benchmark Sensex on Monday plunged about 807 points in line with massive sell-offs in global equities as spike in new coronavirus cases beyond China spooked investors.
Meanhile, mounting worries over potential economic fallout due to the spread of the deadly coronavirus in countries outside China soured the appetite for riskier assets, thereby dragging the Indian rupee today to its lowest level in over three months against the US dollar.
After testing strong resistance around 71.78 a dollar earlier in the day, the rupee was at 71.9875 a dollar at 1700 IST, compared with 71.6400 a dollar on Thursday.
Domestic financial markets were shut on Friday on account of Mahashivratri.
Investors worldwide grappled with possibility of slowdown in global growth after a spike in the number of people infected with the virus in Italy, South Korea and Iran, which hit the market sentiment. South Korea raised its alert level to the highest over the spread of coronavirus.
The 30-share BSE gauge settled at 40,363.23, dropping 806.89 points or 1.96%.
While, the broader NSE Nifty sank 251.45 points or 2.08% to 11,829.40.
All Sensex components ended in the red, with Tata Steel cracking 6.39%, followed by ONGC, Maruti, Titan, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Bharti Airtel.
In a worrying sign for the global economy, the deadly coronavirus is fast spreading beyond China.
Further, the IMF also warned that the deadly epidemic could put an already fragile global economy recovery at risk.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the coronavirus epidemic is the country's "largest public health emergency".
The death toll from the deadly virus climbed to 2,592 in China on Monday.
