Equities tumble as panic selling continues, Yes Bank surges by 48 pc

Equity indices nosedived by nearly 4.5 per cent during early hours on Monday amid the rapidly escalating global coronavirus pandemic even though the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near-zero a day earlier to help shore up the world's largest economy.

At 10 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was down by 1,575 points or 4.62 per cent to 32,529 while the Nifty 50 cracked by 449 points or 4.51 per cent to 9,506.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty private bank and financial service down by 7 per cent each, realty by 6.7 per cent, metal by 5.9 per cent, and IT by 4.9 per cent.

Among stocks, IndusInd Bank was the top loser after dropping by over 11 per cent at Rs 714 per share. ICICI Bank lost by 8.4 per cent and Axis Bank by 8 per cent while HDFC and Bajaj Finance dipped by 8.3 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively.

The other prominent losers were Adani Ports, Titan, Vedanta, UPL and Tata Steel.

But Yes Bank surged by 48.14 per cent to Rs 37.85 per share despite reporting a net loss of Rs 18,564 crore for the Q3 FY20 quarter.

Meanwhile, global stock markets were roiled after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in an emergency move to cushioning the economic impact of coronavirus.

That had only limited success in calming panicky investors and MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan slid by 2.4 per cent while the Nikkei eased by 0.4 per cent.

Shanghai blue chips fell by 1.5 per cent even as China's central bank surprised with a fresh round of liquidity injections into the financial system.

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