Bears on a rampage at D-Street, Sensex down 1,200 pts (Ld)

Mumbai, March 6 (IANS) The benchmark Sensex during Friday's early trade lost over 1,200 points led by a sell-off in finance and banking stocks.The Nifty PSU and private bank index was down over 5 per cent each while the Nifty financial service index slipped nearly 4 per cent.At 11.16 a.m., the Sensex traded 1,224 points lower or 3.18 per cent to 37,245.70 while the broader Nifty slipped by 378.25 points to 10,890.75.Yes Bank shares on Friday fell to the lowest in a decade after RBI on Thursday superseded the board of directors of Yes Bank and placed it under moratorium.During the early trade, Yes Bank shares were down by Rs 12.85 a share or 34 per cent to Rs 34.87 a share from its previous close while SBI fell over 6 per cent to trade at Rs 269.20 a share.Persistent fears of the coronavirus outbreak severely impacting the global economy also weighed on the investor sentiments, analysts said.The total number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in India has jumped to 30.
--IANS ravi/vin