Sensex falls 1300 points below 38150-mark amid fresh coronavirus cases

NEW DELHI: Indian stock market index on Monday fell sharply after two more positive Coronavirus cases reported in the country. The Sensex crashed almost 1,300 points from the day’s high of 39,083. The equity market fell for the seven straight session, making it the longest losing streak in CY20 so far.

After rising as much as 785.88 points to hit the day’s high of 39,083.17 points in afternoon trade, the S&P BSE closed 153.27 points or 0.40 per cent lower at 38,144.02, compared to Friday’s close. This is the lowest closing since October 11, 2019. While, the Nifty corrected as much as 396.75 points, or 3.47 per cent from the day’s high to hit the day’s low of 11,036.25 later in the day.

The early gain was attributed to expectations that major central banks around the world would take steps to stabilise financial markets amid the pandemic that has so far took over 3,000 lives. However, the expectations fizzled out during the late trading hours when the health ministry said two more positive cases of Coronavirus have been detected — one in Delhi and the other in Telangana. 

"The bears came back strongly to dominate in the second half of the trading session. Nifty opened higher but failed to sustain at higher levels, mainly on reports that Coronavirus has hits India’s capital city New Delhi," said Shrikant Chouhan, senior VP, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities. Siddhartha Khemka, head, retail research, Motilal Oswal said that markets would continue to remain highly volatile and weak.