The stock market on Monday witnessed bloodbath as the benchmark indices shed 1.5 per cent amid fears about Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV).

At close, the Sensex was down 1,258.12 points or 1.59% at 77,964.99, and the Nifty was down 388.70 points or 1.62% at 23,616.05.

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Market started the day on a positive note, and witnessed profit boking in the initial hours to erase all the gains.

With the progress of the day, indices extended the losses with Nifty falling below 23,600, while the Sensex also tumbled 1.59% to 77,964 level.

Selling was seen across the sectors with PSU Bank index down nearly 4% after their quarterly business performance.

A sharp fall in index heavyweights such as Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, Tata Motors, among others dragged the markets lower.

On Nifty, the top gainerswere Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (1.79%), Tata Consumer (0.79%), Titan Company (0.54%), HCL Technologies (0.33%) while on the losing side were Tata Steel (4.47%), Trent (4.23%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (3.90%), Coal India (3.79%), NTPC (3.63%).

Over 170 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including ITI, PTC Industries, Apar Industries, Jubilant FoodWorks, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Coromandel International, Info Edge, PB Fintech, Blue Star, among others.

All major sectoral indices finished the session in negative territory with Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Metal, Nifty Energy, Nifty Realty, and Nifty Media falling the most, between 2.51% and 4%.

PSU Bank was down 4%, while metal, realty, energy, PSU, power and oil & gas down 3% each.

HDFC Bank fell as much as 2.1% after reporting slower loan growth of 3% year-on-year for the December quarter. ICICI Bank (-0.3%), Axis Bank (-1.8%), SBI (-1.9%), IndusInd Bank (-2.6%), and Federal Bank (-3.2%) also experienced declines.

Shares of Union Bank of India tumbled 7% after the bank reported its weakest December quarter business update.

Kotak Mahindra Bank slipped over 3% after it reported exit of a senior management personnel.

ITC Ltd shares price was at Rs 455.6 each, down 5.6% or Rs 27 from the previous session’s closing price.

Dabur India shares tumbled after the firm shared its business update for the October-December period.

Broader indices underperformed with BSE Midcap index fell 2.4% and Smallcap index down 3%.

Most Asian markets traded lower as sentiment remained cautious over the potential changes by the US President-elect Donald Trump.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.5%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.2%.