Sensex Slides As Rising Coronavirus Cases Weigh On Sentiment

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes nosedived sharply in afternoon trading as rising cases of deadly coronavirus in the country weighed on the investor sentiment, analysts said. The emergency rate cut by the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday also failed to enthuse investors. The Sensex fell as much as 778 points to hit an intraday low of 37,846 and the Nifty 50 index broke below important level of 11,100. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India and ITC were among the biggest drags on the 30-share Sensex.

As of 3:03 pm, the Sensex was down 275 points or 0.71 per cent at 38,349 and the NSE Nifty 50 index slumped 79 points or 0.7 per cent to 11,224.

"Investor sentiment is getting impacted due to rising cases of coronavirus in the country. Given the current scenario, Nifty can go down 10,950 levels which will be a good point to enter the markets," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital told NDTV over the phone.

India recorded its biggest jump in coronavirus cases today as 15 Italian tourists - who landed in Delhi last month - and one Indian, who was travelling with them, tested positive for the illness, taking the total number of cases to 28.

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday in an emergency move designed to shield the world's largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus. In a statement, the central bank said it was cutting rates by a half percentage point to a target range of 1.00 per cent to 1.25 per cent.

All sector gauges barring the index of Pharma companies on the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Private Bank index's 1.5 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, Media, Metal and Realty sector gauges also fell over a per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 1.2 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped 1.1 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 4.5 per cent to Rs 29.80. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement, ITC and Vedanta were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Labs, GAIL, Asian Paints, Power Grid and Indian Oil were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was extremely bearish as 1,147 shares were declining while 572 were advancing on the BSE.