The Indian equity benchmarks crashed by 1,458 points mid-session on Monday after opening down initially as xpected.

Howeveer, the sudden crash has rattled investors and extended losses after staging a gap attributed mainly to FII not returning to the markets while some say the spread of Omicron variant of Coronavirus prevailed.

The BSE Sensex fell as much as 1,463 points and Nifty 50 index dropped below its important psychological level of 16,550 at around 12 noon. As of 11:59 am, the Sensex was down 1,348 points or 2.4 per cent at 55,641 and Nifty 50 index dropped 420 points or 2.5 per cent to 16,564.

Sensex
IANS

Asian share markets fell and oil prices slid on Monday as surging Omicron Covid-19 cases triggered tighter curbs in Europe and threatened to swamp the global economy into the New Year.

30% of America's 43 Omicron cases had booster shots: CDC
30% of America's 43 Omicron cases had booster shots: CDC

Meanwhilek the spread of Omicron has forced the Netherlands, the highest vaccinated country, to impose lockdown on Sunday and put pressure on others to follow, while the United States and India, the worst-hit nations remained relatively open.