Markets drown in red pool: Sensex & Nifty plunge; Tata Power declines over 9 per cent, Adani Green gains

On Monday, bears created chaos as the domestic markets witnessed a sharp fall i.e. the biggest intraday fall since March 2020.  

Sensex tumbled by more than 1,500 points intraday during today’s afternoon session. The benchmark index, Nifty crashed by 3.14 per cent or 432.15 points to settle at 13,328.40 levels while Sensex fell by 3 per cent or 1,406.73 points to close at 45,553.96 levels.  

Today, the domestic markets fell as a result of the investors’ reaction to renewed COVID fears as a new variant of the novel Coronavirus has been found in the UK; thereby, spooking markets as the country initiated a lockdown and implemented tier-4 restrictions in London along with travel bans. Responding to this, many other European nations also implemented flight bans to the UK. India has also banned flight travel to the UK till December 31, 2020.  

Meanwhile, the global indices remained mixed on Monday. European indices such as FTSE 100, DAX, and CAC 40 plunged by 2.80 per cent, 4.07 per cent and 3.77 per cent, respectively as a result of the rising Coronavirus fears and the subsequent restrictions being applied to curb the same.  

Asian indices such as China’s Shanghai Composite index and South Korea’s KOSPI index gained by 0.76 per cent and 0.23 per cent whereas Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and Japan’s Nikkei index decreased by 0.72 per cent and 0.18 per cent, respectively.  

Besides, domestic markets too witnessed heavy profit booking post strong bullish sentiments seen in recent times. Currently, analysts believe that the best strategy in the current market conditions would be to accumulate quality stocks on dips along with being cautious about trades.   

Indian rupee ended 21 paise lower at 73.78 per dollar. Gold prices had previously jumped after a long-awaited US stimulus deal was reached.   

All stocks in the Sensex basket closed in the red. ONGC tumbled 9.15 per cent, IndusInd Bank plunged 6.98 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra fell by 6.26 per cent, SBI decreased by 6.19 per cent, NTPC plunged 5.98 per cent, ITC declined by 5.38 per cent, Axis bank fell by 4.41 per cent, etc.  

Among sectoral indices on BSE, the Metal index was the biggest loser, declining by 6.05 per cent, followed by Oil & Gas index that fell by 5.99 per cent. Meanwhile, the Realty index was down by 5.03 per cent, the Auto index declined by 4.64 per cent and IT Index fell by 1.69 per cent.   

Thebroader markets were the worst-affected as BSE Small-Cap index declined by 4.57 per cent and BSE Mid-Cap index fell by 4.14 per cent.