Market hammered on broader selling pressure; IPCA Labs bucks trend

The market resumed its downtrend after the circuit breaker was lifted in mid-morning trade. The benchmark indices hit fresh intraday low on unabated selling pressure. The Nifty slipped below 7800 mark.

At 11:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, crashed 3493.42 points or 11.68% at 26,422.54. The Nifty 50 index slumped 992.10 points or 11.34% at 7,753.20.

The broader market crashed. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index tanked 11.1% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 10.47%.

The market breadth was extremely weak. On the BSE, 200 shares rose and 1600 shares fell. A total of 83 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, all 50 stocks were in red.

The Sensex and the Nifty hit lower circuit limit of 10% in morning trade. The market resumed trading at 10:43 IST for pre-opening session. Normal trading started from 10:58 IST.

The next circuit breaker of 15% for the Nifty is placed at 7433.65.

India Lockdown:

After an overwhelming response to the Janata Curfew, 22 states in the country have announced a lockdown in 80 districts where Coronavirus cases have been reported so far. The lockdown will be in effect till 31 March 2020. During the lockdown, only essential services will be allowed to operate in all the districts which have reported cases or casualties due to Coronavirus. The lockdown is aimed at preventing a Coronavirus breakout in India.

COVID-19 Crisis:

Coronavirus has infected more than 339,000 people and killed more than 14,000 across the world. More than 99,000 people have recovered. India has reported 8 deaths and over 425 cases so far.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index tanked 8.53% to 1,548.40, on the back of profit booking. The metal index had jumped 7.54% in previous trading session.

National Aluminium Company (down 12.83%), JSW Steel (down 12.27%), Vedanta (down 11.08%), Tata Steel (down 10.64%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 9.89%), Steel Authority of India (down 8.97%), Hindalco Industries (down 8.06%), NMDC (down 7.44%), Hindustan Zinc (down 5.77%) and Coal India (down 5.1%) were top losers in Nifty Metal index.

Prices of industrial metals continued to remain under pressure as countries failed to contain COVID 19 virus which can heighten worries of a slowdown in global economic growth. China is reportedly the largest producer and consumer of industrial metals. Given such a dominant market share any slowdown in the Chinese economy has a major impact on metal prices and global markets.

Stocks in Spotlight:

IPCA Laboratories jumped 1.19% toRs 1388.20. The company informed that the USFDA had partially lifted an import alert on the company's two plants to ensure supply of chloroquine tablets. The exception for import has been made for the Hydroxychloroquine Sulphate and Chloroquine Phosphate APIs produced at the company's APIs manufacturing unit situated at Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) and hydroxychloroquine sulphate tablets produced at the company's formulations manufacturing units situated at SEZ Indore, Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh) and Piparia (Silvassa).

Titan Company dropped 11.58% to Rs 801.60 after the jewellery manufacturer announced a shutdown of its offices since 17 March 2020. The company also said its plants are closed for a week starting from 23 March 2020 while retail stores will remain shut till 29 March 2020.

Global Markets:

Asian markets were trading sharply lower on Monday on growing anxiety over the fallout from the Covid-19 coronavirus as no certainty was in sight on how long it would continue.

Markets across the world were hammered as a rising tide of national lockdowns threatened to overwhelm policymakers' frantic efforts to cushion what is likely to be a deep global recession.

In US, stock indexes finished another bruising week with sharp losses as panic over the coronavirus outbreak refused to abate, amid the acceleration of the global death toll. Investors haven't yet been comforted by the government's response to limit the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic, whose severity and duration is unclear.

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