Sensex closes 200 points lower after SC verdict, Vodafone crashes by 23 pc

Equity benchmark indices ended lower after a volatile trading session on Friday following Supreme Court's rejection of the telecom companies' plea seeking a new schedule of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments.

The apex court directed them to clear their dues totalling nearly Rs one lakh crore to the government by March 17, and threatened of contempt proceedings if they did not.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 202 points lower at 41,258 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 61 points to 12,113.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty PSU bank down by 2 per cent, private bank by 1.2 per cent, metal by 1.4 per cent and auto by 1.1 per cent.

Among stocks, Vodafone Idea cracked by 23.21 per cent to Rs 3.44 apiece on the BSE after the Supreme Court's AGR verdict. Bharti Infratel settled 5.45 per cent lower at Rs 231.50 per share.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel jumped by 4.5 per cent to a fresh lifetime high of Rs 565.10 as investors bet on a potential duopoly in the Indian telecom sector after the apex court's order.

Banking stocks with large loan exposure to telecom companies too came under pressure. IndusInd Bank was down by 3.7 per cent and State Bank of India by 2.3 per cent.

The other prominent losers were GAIL, Coal India, Eicher Motors, Power Grid Corporation, ITC, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra.

However, Yes Bank continued its upward march and closed 5.3 per cent higher at Rs 39.20 per share after the company said it has received non-binding expressions of interest from several prominent investors.

UPL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and HCL Technologies also traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian shares edged up with investors hoping that governments will make provisions to soften the impact on their economies from coronavirus epidemic.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained by 0.31 per cent and South Korea's Kospi advanced by 0.48 per cent. But Japan's Nikkei dropped by 0.59 per cent after news of first coronavirus death.

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