Finding buying opportunities on D-St amid Russia-Ukraine crisis

Welcome to ETMarkets Watch, the show about stocks, market trends and money-making ideas. I am Bhaskar Dutta. and here are the top headlines at this hour.

> Ukraine hit by second wave of missile strikes
> NATO agrees to beef up eastern flank
> Govt assessing options of tax cut on fuel
> Russian stock market rout wipes out $250 bn
> EU readies new sanctions against Russia
> Voda can sell a portion of Indus stake: CS

Let us take a quick glance at what happened on Dalal Street today.

Domestic equity markets took a massive hit on Thursday as Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with multiple strikes. This wrecked havoc as benchmark indices registered their fourth-worst point-wise fall in history. Both indices logged their seventh straight day of losses. The intense selling wiped out Rs 13.57 lakh crore from investors' kitty.

With the crisis deepening in Europe, inflation is set to surge further. Crude oil prices jumped to $104 per barrel. The BSE barometer breached 55,000 levels during the session. BSE Sensex tanked more than 2,700 points as it barely managed to settle above 54,500 level. The index dropped more than 3,600 points in the last seven sessions.

Its broader peer, Nifty50, tumbled more than 800 points and settled just below 16,250 levels, before testing 16,200. The index has fallen more than 1,100 points in the last seven sessions. Broader markets remained weak throughout the session and underperformed the headline peers as both BSE midcap and smallcap indices crumbled 6 per cent each.

Fear gauge India VIX spiked more than 30 per cent and was just shy of 32-level at close.

It was an tumultuous session for all constituents of the BSE Sensex. IndusInd Bank bled 8 per cent, most among the all. M&M, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel and Bajaj Finserv dropped 6 per cent each. HDFC Bank, Wirpo, Ultratech, Asian Paints, SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Reliance, Airtel, HCL Tech and TCS were among those which each erased 5 per cent of investors wealth during the session.

As many as 10 stocks hit upper circuit during the session, but only half a dozen stocks tested their lower circuit limits. Merely 16 stocks tested their 52-week highs during the session, whereas almost 265 other stocks tested their 52-week lows.

We have Vinod Nair from Geojit Financial Services to share his views on the action and the road ahead:

Welcome to the show sir:
1. After today's meltdown, where do you see buying opportunities at current levels?
2. What do you view on the oil related sectors after today's spike in crude?

We also caught up with Sameet Chavhan of Angel One to decode the technical charts for you.
1. Nifty50 settled below 16,250. What does the technical chart suggest about it?
2. Nifty Bank dropped sharply in the final hour. What is your take on it?

Asian markets settled with deep cuts for the day. Major European markets were trading sharply lower in the first few hours of trade. Also, US stock futures were down towards a negative start to US equities later in the day.

That’s all for now. Do check out ETMarkets.com for all the news, market analysis, investment strategies and dozens of stock recommendations. Enjoy your evening. Bye Bye!