At close, the Sensex was down 1,687.94 points or 2.87% at 57,107.15, and the Nifty was down 509.80 points or 2.91% at 17,026.50, "triggered by the new covid variant in South Africa, markets plummeted into negative territory following weak global peers. Dr. Reddy was the top Sensex gainer, followed Nestle India while all other stocks were down in red. IndusInd Bank was the top laggard, down 6.2%, followed by Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Steel, and Bajaj Finance. About 964 shares have advanced, 2163 shares declined, and 80 shares are unchanged. The Nifty Bank index fell 3.6 percent and the Nifty Realty index slipped 6 percent. The Nifty Pharma index, up 1.7 percent, was the only gainer on the NSE. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell 3.2 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. India VIX climbed 25 percent and hit a 6-month high of 21-level.