Mumbai, Mar 30 (IANS) Sell-off continued in the Indian stock markets on Monday with the BSE Sensex losing over 1,300 points to settle well below the 29,000-mark.

The decline was in line with the global sell-off, as Asian indices fell on the growing number of coronavirus cases worldwide.

In India, too, the cases have surged above the 1,000 mark. So far 1,071 people have been tested positive in India, out of which 942 are active and 29 deaths have been reported. Globally there have been over 6.38 lakh confirmed cases and about 30,000 deaths.

The growing number of cases weighed on the investor sentiments globally on Monday.

Deepak Jasani, Head retail research at HDFC Securities said: "Major Asian markets have closed on a negative note. European indices like FTSE, CAC and DAX are trading in the red."

Sensex closed at 28,440.32, lower by 1,375.27 points or 4.61 per cent from the previous close of 29,815.59. It had opened at 29,226.55 and touched an intra-day high of 29,497.57 and a low of 28,290.99.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange settled at 8,281.10, lower by 379.15 points or 4.38 per cent from its previous close.

Although, all the sectoral indices fell on Monday, auto, banking and financial stocks plunged the most. The S&P BSE Finance, Banking and Auto indices fell by 6.94 per cent, 5.85 per cent and 5.44 per cent respectively.

On the Sensex, Tech Mahindra gained the most, by 4.94 per cent, followed by Nestle India (up 3.93 per cent) and Axis Bank (2.50 per cent), while Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Tata Steel were the major losers, falling by 11.95 per cent, 10.92 per cent and 8.36 per cent respectively.