Investors lose Rs 3.6 trillion as Sensex falls 883 pts on Covid-19 woes

On the National Stock Exchange, the Nifty Pharma index was the only index that ended in thee green, up 0.17 per cent, while the Nifty IT and FMCG indices ended 0.33 per cent and 0.9 per cent down, respectively. Among cyclicals, the Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty Financial Services indices slipped between 2.5 per cent and 4 per cent. The Nifty Auto, Realty, and Metal indices, meanwhile, tumbled up to 4 per cent.

Among the headline indices, the S&P BSE Sensex tanked 1,469 points in the early deals to hit a low of 47,363 levels. On the NSE, the Nifty plummeted 427 points to 14,191 levels. However, buying at lower levels in the pharma and IT space lifted Sensex and Nifty nearly 600 points and 170 points off lows. At close, the Sensex index quoted 47,949 levels, down 883 points while the Nifty50 was at 14,359 levels, down 258 points. Both the indices were down 1.8 per cent each. 

Britannia, Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys, Wipro, and Cipla were the only gainers on the Nifty index, up between 0.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent. On the downside, Adani Ports, Power Grid, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC Life were the top drags, down up to 4 per cent.

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices declined 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. 

Global markets

Contrary to Indian markets, world shares traded near record highs as markets were generally upbeat about the prospects for a global economic recovery from Covid-19, ahead of a busy week for earnings.

Europe's STOXX 600 was up 0.2 per cent while MSCI’s main European Index was up 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's Kospi ended mildly higher while China CSI300 index jumped 2.4 per cent.

(With inputs from Reuters)