Contagion fears from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) sent the benchmark indices to their lowest levels in five months, with banking stocks taking a big knock.

The BSE Sensex closed below the 59000 mark as it plummeted more than 897 points, taking its total losses over the past three sessions to more than 2110 points.

Cautious sentiment among investors ahead of the release of the retail inflation data and lingering apprehensions that global central banks will continue to hike interest rates curtailed any serious buying.

The 30-share BSE Sensex showed some volatility as it opened on a sedate note at 59033.77 and hit a day’s high of 59510.92.

However, selling pressure started building in nearly 90 minutes after the commencement of trade which resulted in the index falling more than 1040 points to hit a day’s low of 58094.55.

The index ended at 58237.85 points, down 1.52 per cent.

The Nifty plunged 258.60 points or 1.49 per cent to end at a five-month low of 17154.30, with 45 of its scrips ending in the red.

Despite the US bailing out SVB, investors remained on the edge on news of another bank failure in the US, New York-based Signature Bank.

IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 7.46 per cent. It was followed by SBI, Tata Motors, M&M, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank and Infosys which fell up to 3.21 per cent whereas the Nifty bank index shed 2.27 per cent.

Yes Bank plunged more than 5 per cent on Monday following the expiry of the Reserve Bank-mandated threeyear lock-in period for individual investors.

The shares tanked 5.27 per cent to close at Rs 15.65 apiece on the BSE. During the day, they tumbled nearly 13 per cent to hit a low of Rs 14.40.