Sensex falls over 2,000 points to close at 31,715, Nifty ends below 9,300

New Delhi: Indian stocks tumbled on Monday, dragged down by heavyweight financials and metal stocks. The benchmark Sensex nosedived 6% or 2,002 points to close at 31,715. Nifty plummeted 566 points or 5.74% to end at 9,293.

Shares of ICICI dropped 10.5% and were the top drag on the Sensex followed by HDFC Ltd and Bajaj Finance. Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma were the only gainers on the 30-share barometer.

Among sectoral indices on the NSE, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank closed over 8% each, followed by Nifty Metal, down 7.8% and Nifty Auto ending 7% lower.

Several leading automakers such as Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and others have reported zero domestic sales for April due to the lockdown. Industry bodies have appealed to the home ministry to allow the companies to resume operations in complete unison.

Reliance Industries (RIL), the country's most valuable company, closed 2.2% lower after a raft of headlines. On Thursday, RIL reported its worst profit slide in 11 years and unveiled the country's largest rights issue, while on Monday the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate announced a nearly $750 million investment from US private equity firm Silver Lake.