NEW DELHI: Domestic indices opened lower in Monday's trade amid rising coronavirus cases and as India prepared to extend the lockdown which has crippled businesses across the country.

Global market cues too remained weak, weighing on investor sentiment. A few state governments have already extended the lockdown till the end of the month after health experts suggested such a course of action on the ground that the Covid-19 threat is still looming large. At 9.31 am, BSE flagship Sensex was down 685 points at 30,474 while NSE benchmark Nifty fell 111 points to below 9,000 mark.

Broader market indices were faring in-line with their headline peers as Nifty Smallcap slipped 0.86 per cent while Nifty Midcap dropped 1.29 per cent.

Nifty 500 was down 1.39 per cent. RIL, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank were among the top drags in the 30-pack Sensex.

Among bluechip stocks, Bharti Airtel was the biggest gainer, up 2.35 per cent at Rs 500 while Infosys and L-T were among other Sensex stocks trading in the green. Bajaj Finance continued to fall, down 7.61 per cent at Rs 2,356, as worries of loan defaults rose amid lockdown.

Auto majors M-M, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto fell more than 5 per cent each. Shares of Avenue Supermarts (DMart) tanked 5 per cent to Rs 2,287 after the owner and operator retail chain DMart said operations of half of its stores are closed. Barring Nifty Pharma that gained 0.89 per cent, all sectors on NSE traded with cuts.

Nifty Auto was the biggest loser, down 3.36 per cent while Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank dropped over 2 per cent each. Globally, global shares fell as investors braced for more signs of economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic although a landmark deal by OPEC and its allies to slash output helped oil prices climb in volatile trade. The Nikkei fell 1.4 per cent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped slightly, with South Korean shares falling 0.9 per cent. US S-P 500 mini futures dropped 1.54 per cent, erasing a brief gain to a one-month high made right after the start of trading. Financial markets in Australia and Hong Kong were closed while in mainland China, the CSI300 index lost 0.6 per cent in early trade.