Indian stock markets tanked today amid a surge in domestic coronavirus cases prospects of the hardest-hit state of Maharashtra considering a lockdown. The Sensex crashed nearly 1,500 points to 48,112 at day’s low while Nifty nosedived below 14,400. India reported a record 1.68 lakh new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, overtaking Brazil to become the second-most affected country globally by the coronavirus. The death toll increased by 904. The rupee also fell sharply against the US dollar.
Here are 10 updates from Indian stock markets:
1) The rupee today edged closer to 75 mark against US dollar when it fell to 74.99, according to Bloomberg data. The rupee had closed at 74.74 on Friday.
2) The rupee has started the new fiscal year on a weak note against the dollar on the back of the central bank’s quantitative easing announcement which could lead to inflationary pressures and importer covering, Reliance Securities said in a note.
3) Financials were under strong pressure with HDFC, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance and SBI down between 3% and 6%. On the other hand, Infosys, Dr Reddy’s and Sun Pharma were among the gainers.
4) Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with the task force via video conferencing on Sunday. A state cabinet minister said in the meeting with the state Covid-19 task force, “everyone was of the view to impose lockdown in the state.”
5) Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments, said: “Nifty has taken a severe U-turn and have tested the 14300-14400 support. For the markets to move up, we need to respect this support range and bounce up.”
6) “14264 was the recent low recorded and if we break that, the next expected level is 13900,” he added.
7) India’s corporate earnings season kicks off today, with software services firm TCS expected to report March-quarter results. Apart from TCS earnings, industrial production for February and CPI inflation for March will be released today while WPI inflation for March will be announced on Wednesday.
8) “Since the second wave of the pandemic is turning out worse than expected, there is profound uncertainty about its impact on the economy and markets. Since the situation is the worst in economically significant Maharashtra, this can impact the market’s assumption of around 11% GDP growth and above 30% earnings growth,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
9) “The situation may improve if cases peak soon and start coming down. But presently, this is a negative,” he said.
10) The bad health situation and rupee depreciation have improved prospects for the pharma and IT sectors, which are likely to remain resilient even during a market downturn, says Vijayakumar, while economy- acing stocks are likely to be under pressure.
