Key equity benchmarks were trading in a narrow range with steep losses in early afternoon trade. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 1652.86 points or 4.90% at 32,064.76. The Nifty 50 index was down 472.80 points or 4.80% at 9,387.10.
Global cues were weak following the latest flare up in US-China tensions. Extension of the nationwide lock-down in India for another two-weeks and continuous selling by foreign investors also weighed on the investor sentiment.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 3.82% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 2.74%. Both the indices outperformed the benchmark Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 485 shares rose and 1702 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged. In the Nifty 50 index, 4 shares advanced while 46 shares declined.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold Indian equities worth Rs 6802.12 crore in April 2020. The FPIs have sold equities worth Rs 72,927.70 crore in 2020 so far.
Total Covid-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 35,07,424 so far with 247,497 deaths. India reported 29,453 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,373 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
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The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 26.29% to 42.925. The Nifty April 2020 futures were trading at 9,367.15, a discount of 19.95 points compared with the spot at 9,863.85.
On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 28 May 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 11.56 lakh contracts at the 9,500 strike price. Maximum put OI of 22.92 lakh contracts was seen at 9,000 strike price.
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The Nifty FMCG index lost 2.75% to 27,880.60, extending its decline after a brief pause. The index rose 0.02% to 29,078.45 in the previous session.
Jyothy Laboratories (down 7.07%), Bajaj Consumer Care (down 4.93%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (down 4.16%), Tata Global Beverages (down 3.26%), Dabur India (down 3.11%), Godrej Consumer Products (down 2.73%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (down 2.31%), Britannia Industries (down 1.86%) and Nestle India (down 1.68%) declined.
Marico rose 0.75% ahead of its Q4 March 2020 earnings today.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) was down 2.83%. On a standalone basis, HUL's net profit declined 1.24% to Rs 1519 crore on a 9.4% decline in net sales to Rs 8,885 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. HUL said the spread of COVID-19 impacted the business from mid-March, which culminated into scaling down of operations post the national lockdown. Domestic consumer growth declined by 9% with a decline of 7% in underlying volume growth.
EBITDA for Q4 March 2020 stood at Rs 2065 crore, declining 11% year on year from Rs 2321 crore in Q4 March 2019. Reported EBITDA margin reduced by 40 bps (160 bps reduction on comparable basis after adjusting for accounting impact of Ind AS 116). "In this challenging economic context, HUL performance has been competitive with corporate market share gains," the company said.
On a standalone basis, net profit grew at 11.63% to Rs 6738 crore on a 1.63% rise in net sales to Rs 38,273 crore in the year ended March 2020 (FY20) compared with the year ended March 2019 (FY19). The board of directors has proposed a final dividend of Rs 14 per share, subject to the approval of the shareholders at the AGM.
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JSW Steel slumped 8.82% to Rs 164.95. The company's crude steel production declined 59.5% to 5.63 lakh tonnes in April 2020 as against 13.93 lakh tonnes in April 2019. The company said it clocked an average capacity utilisation of 38% for the month. Production of flat rolled products fell 64% to 3.44 lakh tonnes in April 2020 from 9.53 lakh tonnes in April 2019. Production of long rolled products tanked 73.5% to 0.89 lakh tonnes in April 2020 from 3.36 lakh tonnes in April 2019.
State-run NMDC skid 7.33% to Rs 74.60 after the iron-ore producing major declared that its annual provisional production tumbled 37.93% to 1.80 million tonnes (MT) in April 2020 over 2.90 MT in April 2019. Provisional iron-ore sales slumped 48.88% to 1.38 million tonnes (MT) in April 2020 as against 2.70 MT in April 2019.
On a month-on-month (M-o-M) basis, NMDC's provisional iron-ore production dropped 34.78% in April 2020 as compared to 2.76 MT in March 2020. The provisional iron-ore sales also witnessed a 48.88% decline in April 2020 from 2.70 MT in March 2020.
Shares of hospital operators declined after the Maharashtra state government reportedly capped the prices of a host of medical procedures for private and charitable hospitals in the state to prevent healthcare providers from hiking their charges during the covid-19 pandemic.
Fortis Healthcare (down 4.80%), Narayana Hrudayalaya (down 4.01%), Max India (down 3.65%) and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (down 2.25%) edged lower. Meanwhile, Wockhardt was up 2.25%.
The reduction in prices for private healthcare providers reportedly comes at a time when they are dealing with lower hospital occupancy rates, as patients opt to postpone planned medical procedures for after the pandemic, and increased expenses in providing personal protective equipment for all doctors.
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