Sensex, Nifty tumble for second time in a week; Ashok Leyland plunges 9 per cent, Subex gains 3 per cent
On Thursday, the domestic markets spooked investors as Sensex crashed by 1,114.82 points or 2.96 to close at 36,553.60 levels while Nifty declined by 326.30 points or 2.93 per cent to settle at 10,805.55 levels.
Reports suggest that India’s Finance Ministry is reassessing its earlier optimism about a V-shaped economic recovery.
IT and Metal stocks saw heavy selling, followed by auto and infra stocks.
Global markets were shaken after officials of the US Federal Reserve made comments that the US economy is in much worse shape as compared to what the investors are assuming. The US economy seems to be in a deep hole of joblessness and weak demand and there is a need for fiscal stimulus. Reacting to this, the US stocks fell as the fear in investors began to build up. Also, a resurgence in the Coronavirus cases has raised concerns about the possibility of economies going under lockdown once again. To add to the trouble of investors, western economic data remained very weak and failed to increase investors’ confidence about a quick economic growth. These global cues strongly hit investor sentiments in the domestic markets as well.
Asian indices such as Shanghai index, Hang Seng, Nikkei, and KOSPI fell by 1.72 per cent, 1.82 per cent, 1.11 per cent, and 2.59 per cent, respectively. European indices such as FTSE 100 and CAC 40 were seen trading down by 0.40 per cent and 0.25 per cent, respectively while DAX was trading flat.
HUL was the only stock in the Sensex basket to close in the green, up by 0.36 per cent. Meanwhile, Sensex draggers consisted of IndusInd Bank that went down by 7.10 per cent, Bajaj Finance fell by 6.63 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra declined by 6.37 per cent, Tech Mahindra plunge by 5.65 per cent, TCS slumped 5.50 per cent, Tata Steel fell by 4.82 per cent, etc.
Sectoral indices on BSE ended in the red. BSE IT index and BSE TECK index were the top losers, declining by 4.45 per cent and 4.25 per cent, respectively.