Indian share markets crashed yesterday as fears that the government could go for stricter lockdowns to curb the second wave of Covid-19, hampering the economic recovery, spooked market participants.
At the closing bell yesterday, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 1,708 points (down 3.4%).
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended down by 524 points (down 3.5%).
Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank were among the top losers.
Midcap and smallcap stocks plunged. The BSE Mid cap index and the BSE Small cap index ended down by 5.3% and 4.8%, respectively.
On the sectoral front, realty stocks, banking stocks and automobile stocks were among the hardest hit.
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Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX were trading up by 0.3% at Rs 46,751 per 10 grams at the time of closing stock market hours yesterday.
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Spike in Covid-19 Cases: A sharp rise in Covid-19 cases are posing a serious threat to the economic recovery of India and the world.
India reported 1,68,912 fresh Covid-19 cases yesterday - the biggest spike in daily cases witnessed since the pandemic began last year.
Lockdown Fears: One of the key reasons behind the stock market crash is the possibility of a lockdown in Maharashtra, which contributes 14.5% of the country's overall GDP.
Many Indian states have announced restrictions on human gatherings and the threat of a complete lockdown looms.
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Macro Data: Data out this week is expected to show US inflation jumped in March, while retail sales are seen surging perhaps even with a double-digit gain.
Depreciating Rupee: The domestic currency declined 39 paise against the US dollar yesterday, looking set to extend its losing streak to the sixth day in a row as investors were spooked by the fast-rising Covid-19 cases in the country.
The rupee slipped to 75.13 versus the US dollar, a level seen in August last year.
Profit Booking: Apart from the above, losses were also seen as share market succumbed to profit-booking after a healthy rise witnessed for the stock markets lately.
Most of the profit-booking was seen in the banking sector yesterday with stocks such as IndusInd Bank, SBI, Kotak Bank and Axis Bank dragging the benchmark index lower.
We will keep you updated on how these factors develop in the coming days and what effect they have on Indian stock markets. Stay tuned!
Among the buzzing stocks today will be Solara Active Pharma Sciences.
Shares of Solara Active Pharma Sciences gained the most in more than two months yesterday after the bulk drug maker approved a merger of Aurore Life Sciences with itself in an all-stock transaction.
The shareholders of Aurore will have a 27% ownership in the merged entity, Solara said in an exchange filing. After the merger, Solara will hold a 67% stake in Aurore Pharma, while promoter shareholding in Solara will rise to 55.2% from 42.6%. Aurore Group consists of Aurore Life Sciences and its ownership in Aurore Pharma.
The move, the filing said, aims to create the nation's second-largest pure-play active pharmaceutical ingredient/contract research and manufacturing company.Solara's board also approved the merger of Empyrean Lifesciences and Hydra Active Pharma Sciences with itself.
Shares of pharma companies will also be in demand today after the government banned export of antiviral drug, Remdesivir (injection and API both) in order to address increased demand in view of rising Covid-19 cases in the country.
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The government banned exports of the Covid-19 drug Remdesivir after reports of shortages, hoarding and profiteering in Mumbai and several other cities in India.
India has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases with the second wave of the pandemic. Union Health Ministry said it is taking measures to ensure easy access to Remdesivir for hospitals and patients.
Currently, seven Indian companies are producing Remdesivir injections under voluntary licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences. These producers have an installed capacity of about 3.88 million units per month.
Hetero Drugs, Cipla, Zydus Cadila, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Divi's Laboratories are among few Indian companies who produce Remdesivir under a licensing pact with Gilead Sciences.
Infosys share price will also be in focus today.
Infosys on Sunday said its board will decide on a buyback programme, along with March quarter earnings, in its next board meeting.
As per reports, the IT major is likely to report a flat-to-negative sequential growth in March quarter profit on a 2-4% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) rise in sales.
"The Board of the Company will consider a proposal for buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the Company at its meeting to be held on April 14, 2021," the company said in a regulatory filing.
The company's board is considering a share buyback proposal that would be the Bengaluru-based IT services company's third in less than five years.
The size of the buyback could be Rs 100-120 billion, and at a price of Rs 1,650-1,670 apiece.
Moving on to the news from IPO space...
Bengaluru-based Shriram Properties has filed draft prospectus with the markets regulator to raise Rs 8 billion via initial public offering (IPO).
The proposed IPO comprises equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each of the company aggregating up to Rs 8 billion.
The IPO will be a fresh issue of Rs 2.5 billion and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to Rs 5.5 billion by current shareholders and promoters.
Shriram Properties has proposed partial exits to its four existing investors i.e. TPG Capital, Tata Capital, Walton Street Capital and Starwood Capital, which hold around 58% stake in the company.
The OFS would comprise sale of shares worth Rs 1.5 billion by Omega TC Sabre Holdings, Rs 0.1 billion by Tata Capital Financial Services, Rs 1.5 billion by TPG Asia SFV Ltd., Rs 2.2 billion by WSI/WSQI V (XXXII) Mauritius Investors Ltd. and Rs 0.3 billion by other selling shareholders.
The company proposes to utilize the net proceeds from the fresh issue towards repayment of debt and general corporate purposes.
The company has a large presence in South India. It has completed various real estate projects and many projects are under construction.
Note that despite the Covid-19 epidemic, the Indian real estate sector has managed to see three successful public issues of real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Raheja's Mindspace Business Parks REIT was listed in August last year after raising Rs 45 billion, while global investment firm Brookfield India REIT worth Rs 38 billion got listed in February this year.
Recently, India's largest realty firm Macrotech Developers (Lodha Developers), raised as much as Rs 25 billion via an IPO, which closed last week on Friday.
The IPO of Macrotech Developers was subscribed 103% which saw a robust response, led by qualified institutional buyers and non-institutional investors.
The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) received 22.99 million bids against 10.16 million on offer, while that reserved for non-institutional investors received 8.27 million bids versus 7.62 million on offer.
The retail portion saw tepid response, with 34% subscription.
We will keep you posted on all the news from this space. Stay tuned.
And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
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Indian share markets end deep in the red with the Sensex down by 1,708 points and the Nifty ending down by 524 points.
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