India's equity markets faced a bloodbath on Monday for a number of reasons. The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 1500 points in early trading. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty 50 was down 400 points.
Along with the Indian stock markets, India's currency, the rupee, also took a severe beating in US Dollar terms in early trading on Monday. The rupee slid past the level of 74 INR/USD, registering its weakest level since October 2018.
India's stock markets fell in tandem with other Asian equity markets, which fell on Monday on the back of Cornonavirus contagion fears as well as crashing oil prices. Indian oil stocks are trading in the red. Reliance Industries Ltd stock fell almost 6 percent, while the stock of state-run ONGC slumped 10 percent.
Stock Market analyst Vivek Mittal told Sputnik, "the global stock market meltdown, Coronavirus spreading in Italy and no deal between Russia and OPEC has impacted European and Middle East markets. Sharp selling by Middle East funds may keep impacting Indian markets too. A decline in crude prices would benefit India in the long-run."
Oil Prices plunged as the effort by the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree to deep cuts in crude production in wake of the spread of Coronavirus did not find favour with Russia, which is of the view that it is too early to assess the impact of the virus on future economic activity and subsequently oil demand.
The Yes Bank crisis also contributed to the falling of Indian stocks. India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, suspended Yes Bank's board on March 5. India's largest lender, the State Bank of India, would now invest about $1.5 billion to salvage the troubled Yes Bank.