Closing Bell: It's a bloodbath on Dalal Street as Indian markets witness the worst single-day fall in seven months

Benchmark equity indices fell by almost 2% on Monday amid a sell-off in all the sectoral indices.

Domestic benchmark indices extended losses for a fourth straight session on Monday with Sensex and Nifty dropping the most in seven months, as investor sentiment was shaken after a weak listing of the country's biggest-ever Paytm's IPO. Also, adding to the woes was the rollback of three farm laws along with continuous selling by foreign institutional investors heightened volatility on Dalal Street. During today's trading session, the Sensex fell as much as 2.72% or 1,624 points and the Nifty 50 index briefly dropped below its important psychological level of 17,300.

At the closing bell on Monday, the Sensex was down 1,170.12 points or 1.96% at 58,465.89, and the Nifty was down 348.30 points or 1.96% at 17,416.50. On the market depth, around 842 shares have advanced, 2479 shares declined, and 157 shares remain unchanged.

Among the top Nifty losers on a bleeding day were Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, ONGC, Tata Motors and Reliance Industries, while top gainers included Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, JSW Steel, Power Grid and Hindalco Industries.

Today all the sectoral indices ended in the red with realty, healthcare, auto, oil & gas, and the PSU bank indices down 2-4%. In the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap closed down by 2-3%.

Among the trending stock of the day and also the top drag was Reliance Industries which added over 300 points to the fall. Reliance Industries came under selling pressure after the country's largest firm decided to mutually halt a stake sale in its oil-to-chemicals business (O2C) to Saudi Arabia's Aramco and pulled back from a potential spinoff of its most profitable unit. The stock closed 4.4% lower at Rs 2,363.

Paytm was also in the news today as the company's market capitalization or its market value dropped by as much as Rs 56,233 crore after its disastrous market debut on November 18. Paytm shares have crashed as much as 40% from their IPO price to hit a low of ₹ 1,283 in just two trading sessions. Market experts pointed at high valuations as the reason behind the spiralling downfall in the stock price.