Equity indices fall sharply as COVID-19 pandemic batters global sentiment

Equity benchmark indices gyrated between gains and losses on Tuesday as mounting coronavirus cases and the biggest plunge in US markets in three decades gave ammunition to the bears while the Reserve Bank of India's steps to reign in volatility gave hope to investors.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 811 points or 2.58 per cent lower at 30,579 while the Nifty 50 tumbled by 230 points or 2.5 per cent to 8,967.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain with Nifty financial service down by 4.6 per cent, private bank by 4.1 per cent, realty by 2.4 per cent and IT by 2.6 per cent.

Among stocks, Zee Entertainment plunged by 20 per cent to Rs 133 per share after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued fresh summons to Chairman Subhash Chandra in connection with loans given by cash-strapped Yes Bank.

IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank dropped by 9.2 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively while Tata Motors skidded by 6.5 per cent. The other prominent losers were Bharti Infratel, UPL, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, GAIL, and JSW Steel.

But Yes Bank share price rose by 59.3 per cent on March 17 after Moody's upgraded its ratings with a positive outlook. It has upgraded bank's long-term foreign-currency issuer and foreign currency senior unsecured medium-term note (MTN) programme ratings to Caa1 from Caa3 and (P)Caa1 from (P)Caa3 respectively.

The other major winners were Hindustan Lever, Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, and Coal India.

Meanwhile, most Asian shares fell a day after Wall Street's historic market rout. South Korea's Kospi was off 2.47 per cent and Shanghai composite slipped by 0.34 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei ticked up by 0.06 per cent later in latter part of the day while Hang Seng was up by 0.87 per cent.

Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since the crash of 1987 on Monday after unprecedented steps taken by the Federal Reserve, lawmakers and the White House to slow the spread and blunt the economic hit of coronavirus failed to restore order to markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,997 points or 12.93 per cent to 20,189, the S & P 500 lost 325 points or 11.98 per cent to 2,386 while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 970 points or 12.32 per cent to 6,905.

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