MUMBAI: Investor sentiments on Friday continued to drag down Indian capital markets amidst uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and its economic impact. BSE Sensex tanked by 674.365 points to settle at 27,590.95 and Nifty slipped 170 points to close at 8,083.80, amidst heavy selling in banking stocks.
On a weekly basis, Sensex lost 7.46 per cent, while Nifty50 slipped 6.65 per cent — their seventh straight weekly fall. Experts say the trend will continue in the coming week.As many as 1,126 shares have advanced on Friday, 1,078 shares declined, and 174 shares remained unchanged.
Axis Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, losing over 9 per cent; ICICI Bank was down by 7.5 per cent and HDFC by over 5 per cent. Other major losers included IndusInd Bank, SBI, Titan Company, Infosys, TCS and Asian Paints — all of whom fell around 3-5 per cent.
Globally, the confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday, with more than 52,000 deaths. Back home, an ongoing 21-day lockdown has already brought the economy to a standstill.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index declined by 1.17 per cent at 10,219.05, whereas the BSE Smallcap closed at 9,409, down over 1 per cent.
Bucking the trend, pharma stocks continued to rally and Nifty Pharma index rose around 5 per cent to 7,362 levels, with eight out of ten constituents advancing. Nifty FMCG index also ended in green, up 0.7 per cent at 26,538 levels.
With fresh cases of coronavirus rising every day, concerns over the looming economic recession is keeping investors on an edge. The slump is likely to continue and the market is expected to remain volatile till there is clarity on the situation after the lockdown ends on April 14, 2020.
“Markets are trading uncertainty, regarding the spread of the virus in India, as hope emerged of infections peaking in some of the worst-affected global markets,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
