Benchmark indices ended lower for the second consecutive session on Monday, December 20, on rising concern over the Omicron variant.
At close, the Sensex was down 1,189.73 points or 2.09% at 55,822.01, and the Nifty was down 371.00 points or 2.18% at 16,614.20.
About 621 shares advanced, 2604 shares declined, and 97 shares were unchanged.
Among sectoral indices, the NIFTY realty plunged 4.90 percent while NIFTY PSU Bank dipped 4.48 per cent. Cipla Pharma and Hindustan Unilever were among the top gainers. BPCL was down 6.49 percent, while Tata Motors dipped 5.24 percent.
Major companies were trading in a sea of red. Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Indus Ind Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Kotak Mahindra Bank were some of the biggest laggards in the afternoon session of trade.
At closing, the BSE Sensex fell 2.09 percent to 55822.01. About 746 shares have advanced, 2699 shares declined, and 122 shares are unchanged.
At 2:35 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1,312.75 points (2.30 percent) at 55,698.99, while the broader Nifty 50 was trading at 16,574.50, down 410.70 points (2.42 percent).
The Metal, Oil & Gas, and Capital Goods indices dived more than 4 percent each. All sectoral indices were down over 2 percent each.
Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap index plunged 4.4 percent while the Smallcap index was down 4.2 percent.
(With inputs from the The Times of India and MoneyControl)
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