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LIVE Market Updates: Sensex, Nifty Fall 2% As Financial Stocks Drag Markets
12 May 2020, 03:49 PM IST 
BSE Sensex Today: The index opened 218.29 points lower at 31,342.93 on Tuesday, May 12
- At 11:23 am, the Sensex traded 568.68 points - or 1.80 per cent - lower at 30,992.54, while the Nifty was down 145.95 points - or 1.58 per cent - at 9,093.25.
- Thirty four stocks in the Nifty basket of 50 components moved lower at the time. Top percentage losers were HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Zee Entertainment, HDFC and Reliance Industries, trading between 3.20 per cent and 3.88 per cent lower. On the other hand, Vedanta, UPL, NTPC, power Grid and Tech Mahindra - up between 1.42 per cent and 4.90 per cent each - were the top Nifty gainers.
- HDFC Bank, HDFC and Reliance Industries together accounted for a loss of more than 350 points in the Sensex.
- Market breadth was extremely negative with an advance-decline ratio of 1:3, as only 411 stocks traded higher on the NSE against 1,245 that moved in the opposite direction. On the BSE, 535 shares advanced while 1,356 declined.
- The government is expected to unveil a second stimulus package soon, aimed at medium- and small-sized companies battered by coronavirus, but the timing remains unclear and the government is yet to make any announcement, according to news agency Reuters.
- "In case the stimulus is not up to the market's expectation, we could see some more correction," Reuters quoted Rusmik Oza, head of fundamental research at brokerage Kotak Securities, as saying in a report. "It's a sell-on-rise market right now and it is not going to sustain at higher levels."
- Analysts awaited the release of consumer inflation data due later in the day for more clarity on monetary policy going forward. Retail inflation - or the rate of increase in consumer prices - eased to a five-month low of 5.68 per cent in April, from 5.91 per cent in the previous month, according to a poll by Reuters.
- Equities elsewhere in Asia moved lower, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan last seen trading 0.85 per cent lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 and China's Shanghai Composite benchmark indices were down 0.13 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively at the time, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down a sharper 1.45 per cent.
- Overnight in the US, the benchmark indices finished a volatile session on a mixed note. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices ended 0.02 per cent and 0.78 per cent higher respectively, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.45 per cent lower. The S&P 500 E-Mini futures were down 0.81 per cent in early Asian trade on Tuesday, indicating a negative start for the US markets later in the day.
- On Monday, the S&P BSE Sensex index had ended 81.48 points - or 0.26 per cent - lower at 31,561.22 and the broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark settled at 9,239.20, down 12.30 points - or 0.13 per cent - from its previous close.
