Continuing their last session’s losing trend, Indian equity benchmarks made gap-down opening on Monday on concerns over rising Covid-19 cases. Markets are trading deeply in red with cut of over 2% each in early deals due to selling in all the sector indices led by Realty, PSU and Bankex. Concerns over rising COVID-19 cases in the country and fears of lockdown in certain states weighed on market sentiment. Breaking all records, India has recorded a massive surge of 169,899 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Worldometer showed that with this, India has once again taken its spot as the second-worst hit nation with 13,525,364 cases in total. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn a net Rs 929 crore from Indian markets so far this month amid concerns over rising COVID-19 cases denting the economic recovery. Market participants are also eyeing the macro-economic data -- consumer price index (CPI) and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) -- to be out later in the day for further direction.
Global cues also remained weak with most of the Asian markets trading lower as trader continue to be cautious amid the surge in coronavirus cases in the region and the possible restrictions on economic activity in several markets. The US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Sunday also warned that coronavirus remains a threat to the economy. Back home, select pharma stocks were trading in green with report that Gilead has signed non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with pharma companies including Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Jubilant Lifesciences, Syngene, a Biocon company and Zydus Cadila Healthcare to manufacture remdesivir for distribution in 127 countries. In scrip specific development, TCS remained in focus ahead of its earnings release.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 48440.20, down by 1151.12 points or 2.32% after trading in a range of 48112.17 and 48956.65. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 3.57%, while Small cap index was down by 3.11%.
The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 5.40%, PSU down by 4.11%, Bankex down by 3.92%, Auto down by 3.76%, Power down by 3.65%, while there was no gainer.
The only gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.06% and Infosys up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 7.21%, SBI down by 6.22%, Bajaj Finance down by 5.33%, Bajaj Auto down by 4.23% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.94% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the World Bank Group (WBG) to explore the possibility of sustaining crisis response keeping in mind debt sustainability of vulnerable countries amid surge in COVID-19 cases.
She also appreciated the pro-active role played by the WBG in helping developing countries get access to vaccines in a timely and affordable manner in coordination with other multilateral agencies like WHO and GAVI (Global Vaccine Alliance). The WBG, she observed, has stepped up its financing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with total financing approvals exceeding USD 100 billion for the first time.
She stated countries are all engaged in steering their economies and people safely out of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the Government of India has taken several measures to contain the spread of the pandemic and also to mitigate its social and economic impact including a series of economic stimulus packages in the past one year.
She mentioned that the government has announced Aatmanirbhar packages of Rs 27.1 lakh crore, amounting to more than 13 per cent of the GDP. These packages were meant not only to provide social protection to the poor and vulnerable but also to push forward the economic reforms.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14483.20, down by 351.65 points or 2.37% after trading in a range of 14384.40 and 14652.50. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.77%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.36%, Divis Lab up by 1.06%, Infosys up by 0.80% and Sun Pharma up by 0.04%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 7.05%, SBI down by 6.02%, Tata Motors down by 5.33%, Bajaj Finance down by 5.30% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 4.77% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 153.17 points or 0.51% to 29,614.89, Straits Times lost 13.03 points or 0.41% to 3,171.51, Hang Seng declined 281.56 points or 0.98% to 28,417.24, Jakarta Composite fell 72.18 points or 1.19% to 5,998.03 and Shanghai Composite was down by 27.98 points or 0.81% to 3,422.70. However, Taiwan Weighted rose 41.46 points or 0.25% to 16,895.56, and KOSPI added 3.38 points or 0.11% to 3,135.26.