With the fall in today's session, Sensex and Nifty have consecutively dropped for seven straight days. 
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With the fall in today's session, Sensex and Nifty have consecutively dropped for seven straight days. Sensex and Nifty extended losses for the seventh straight session on coronavirus fears today. The indices attempted a sharp recovery before 2 new cases of coronavirus were detected in India. This takes the total number of infected from the virus outbreak to 5 in the nation.
Sensex fell 1,298 points from day's high of 39,083 to 37,785 in the last hour of trade on reports of fresh coronavirus cases. Benchmark indices managed to erase some losses but still ended lower in trade today.
While Sensex closed 153 points lower at 38,144, Nifty lost 69 points to 11,132. Overall, 23 of 30 stocks on Sensex and 35 out of 50 stocks on Nifty closed in the red.
Meanwhile, rupee pared all its initial gains and settled 50 paise lower at 72.74 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday after two fresh cases of coronavirus were detected in India.
"Rupee witnessed the highly volatile trading session, it was the only losing currency among Asia, after the government agency said the nation has found two new cases of coronavirus patients," said V K Sharma, Head PCG and Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities.
Earlier, Dalal Street witnessed a strong rally after the last fall of over 2.85% on Friday. The 30-share Sensex rose 785 points to 39,083 level, with 50-share Nifty climbing 200 points to 11,433 as domestic investors turned bullish on account of a sharp recovery overseas. This recovery came after Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve signalled liquidity injection into their economies to deal with the pandemic.
"Global stocks rebounded Monday on growing hopes among investors that the world's central banks will act by coordinated easing across the major central banks to help limit the economic and financial damage caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak," said Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
The sharp sell-off in Nifty was also on the back of pullback rally in Dow futures, suggested Santosh Meena, Senior Analyst, TradingBells and added," The Nifty pullback was weak towards 11,400 and news of new Coronavirus cases in India led this sharp fall while the global markets were trading into the green."
Sector-wise, BSE metal, oil and gas, basic materials, utilities, energy and telecom indices fell up to 2.05 per cent, while IT and teck indices ended in the green. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell up to 0.77 per cent. Top losers in the Sensex pack included SBI, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, ONGC and IndusInd Bank.
"Detection of new cases of coronavirus in India has nipped the nascent pullback in the Indian equity market. Despite the stability in the equity markets globally, the coronavirus scare led to fall of close to 400 points in Nifty from its intra-day high of 11,430 in matter for just an hour or so," Gaurav Dua, senior VP, Head - Capital Market Strategy & Investments, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said.
Top Nifty losers were YES Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, GAIL and Hero MotoCorp. On the other hand, top gainers by the closing bell were Eicher Motors, HCL Tech, Nestle India, ICICI Bank and Tech Mahindra.
As per update from the government, one person who tested positive for coronavirus in Delhi had a travel history from Italy, another who tested positive in Telangana had a travel history from Dubai.
Novel coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has now spread to six of the world's seven continents infecting more than 88,000 people and taking new fatalities to over 3,000 worldwide. The number of countries affected by the virus outbreak has reached 68 on March 1 from 30 on February 23.
With the fall in today's session, Sensex and Nifty have consecutively dropped for seven straight days. Both indices have overall fallen over 5% in a week. While Sensex has erased 7.54% value year to date, Nifty has fallen 8.51% value in the same period.
The spread of the virus to 53 countries and its implications on the economy made investors jittery in the equity market, leading to erosion of around $6 trillion off global equities in Friday's trading session. Sensex and Nifty too recorded major sell-off on the last trading session of Friday and dropped 2.85% each.
Contrary to the equity market, Gold Futures in the Indian commodity market rose amid fresh geopolitical tensions and climbed by Rs 783 to the day's high of 42,180 as compared to the opening price of Rs 41,397 per 10 gm.
Coronavirus updates: Two new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Delhi, Telangana
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