Sensex bleeds by 1,709.58 points; Nifty by 498.25 points

On Wednesday, the selling spree at D-Street continued with no relief as BSE Sensex fell by 1,709.58 points or 5.59 per cent to the level of 28,869.51. Sensex broke its mark of 29,000 for the first time since January 2017. Its NSE counter Nifty 50 breached the level of 8,500 to end at 8,468.80 level, down by 498.25 points or 5.56 per cent. Other global indices also witnessed a fall due to the fear of Coronavirus.

The threat of Coronavirus continued in the global economy but comments from global brokers regarding the virus, triggered a major global recession, which can severely impact the global economy thereby further, spooking the investors. As several Central Banks around the world have announced stimulus to aid the market sentiments, RBI announced that it will open market operations as on March 20 by purchasing an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore of government securities with tenor between two and five years to maintain financial stability in the markets.

During the day’s freefall, banking shares were the worst hit with S&P BSE Bankex index down by 6.99 per cent. IndusInd Bank continued its fall, being down by 24 per cent, HDFC Bank was down by 9.92 per cent and Axis Bank also fell by 3.36 per cent. HDFC twins contributed most to the fall in Sensex followed by Kotak Bank, Reliance and Bajaj Finance. HDFC twins alone contributed almost 160 to the Sensex fall. Kotak Bank contributed 44 points while, Reliance-32 points and Bajaj Finance-24 points to the fall of Sensex.

S&P BSE Mid-Cap gainers include Oil India which went up by 16.31 per cent, Adani Transmission-up by 10 per cent, SJVN went up by 8.53 per cent, Bharat Electronics-up by 6.29 per cent and NHPC also closed up by 4.93 per cent. The index losers include Edelweiss-down by 19.95 per cent, AU Small Finance-down by 16.16 per cent, Sriram Transport-down by 11.51 per cent, Apollo Hospitals-down by 10.10 per cent and Nam-India fell by 13.95 per cent.

S&P BSE Small-Cap gainers constitute of Just Dial which gained 18.14 per cent, Cochin Shipyard-up by 12.47 per cent, BLS International Services gained 9.92 per cent, SKF India rose 8.70 per cent and Oriental Bank of Commerce was up by 5.65 per cent. The index losers constitute of Quess Corp-losing 19.99 per cent, Vivimed Labs, down by 19.14 per cent, Prestige Estates Projects down by 18.78 per cent and MAS Financial Services registering a fall of 18.65 per cent.

In a beaten market, the following stocks displayed an impressive performance: Zeel-up by 23.72 per cent, IVP Ltd-up by 20 per cent, Just Dial-up by 18.14 per cent, Gujarat Apollo-up by 20 per cent and Oil India-up by 16.31 per cent.