Sensex erases intraday recovery as it slips by 535 points

On Friday, Sensex fell by 535.86 points, which is 1.68 per cent to be at the level of 31,327.22 while, Nifty was down by 159.50 points, which is by 1.71 per cent to reach the level of 9,154.40.

At the beginning of today’s trade, the domestic stock markets were exhibiting weak signs as the global indices took a plunge due the projections of COVID-19 blow to the economy. Additionally, fear was brought in when Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund announced that it has decided to wind up six debt mutual fund schemes, causing its investors to not purchase or sell in these schemes anymore.

Read the full story here:

https://www.dsij.in/DSIJArticleDetail/ArtMID/10163/ArticleID/12573/Franklin-Templeton-India-shuts-down-six-debt-funds

As a result, the company significantly reduced liquidity in Indian bond markets for most debt securities as well as led to unprecedent levels of redemption, following Coronavirus outbreak as well as impacts of the lockdown as its reasons for taking this step. Post this development, the domestic banking stocks took a heavy beating. As Fitch Ratings cut India’s economic growth projections to 0.8 per cent for 2020-2021, the global economic growth is also expected to fall by 3.9 per cent in 2020. According to reports, a potential antiviral for COVID-19 failed its clinical trials thus, dragging the market sentiments.

Meanwhile, Sensex gainers included RIL-up by 3.34 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical-up by 1.67 per cent, Hero MotoCorp-up by 1.38 per cent, L&T rose by 1.18 per cent, Power Grid was up by 0.82 per cent, etc.

Sensex draggers were mainly banking and IT stocks such as Bajaj Finance-down by 9.14 per cent, IndusInd Bank-down by 6.58, Axis Bank fell by 5.96 per cent, ICIC Bank fell by 5.09 per cent, HDFC closed down by 5 per cent, Tech Mahindra was down by 3.79 per cent, TCS fell by 3.12 per cent, Infosys was down by 2.97 per cent, HDFC Bank fell by 1.79 per cent, etc.

As for the sectoral indices, Realty lost the most by 4.15 per cent, followed by Bankex and Metal which were down by 3.30 per cent and 2.96 per cent, respectively.