The broader market slumped. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 3.70% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index tumbled 4.53%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 580 shares rose and 1821 shares fell. A total of 160 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 10 stocks advanced while 40 stocks declined.
Concerns over the coronavirus epidemic overshadowed the steps taken by global central banks for reviving the economy. The US Federal Reserve, The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank have announced coordinated actions to enhance liquidity provision in financial markets to tackle disruption caused by coronavirus outbreak.
Coronavirus Crisis:
Coronavirus has infected more than 2,00,000 people and killed more than 8000 across the world. Total cases in India have risen to 169. Three persons have lost their lives in India due to the virus. As per the latest update, two women tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai metropolitan region on Thursday, taking the number of such cases in Maharashtra to 47.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on 19 March 2020 at 8 PM, during which he will talk about issues relating to COVID-19 and the efforts to combat it.
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Global Markets:
European shares were mixed Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) launched a 750 billion euro ($820 billion) bond-buying program to help the region's economy through the coronavirus outbreak. However, Asian stock markets ended in the red.
ECB said it is launching a new, expanded program to buy financial assets in a bid to calm markets as monetary authorities struggle to counter the devastation the virus outbreak is wreaking on the global economy. The ECB will buy 750 billion euro ($820 billion) in bonds through 2020, with Greek debt and non-financial commercial paper eligible under the programme for the first time.
Stocks in the US finished sharply lower on Wednesday, but off session lows after Congress passed the first of two planned bills providing some relief from the economic damage the coronavirus pandemic is inflicting on businesses and consumers.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve invoked its emergency authority on Wednesday to create a backstop for prime money market mutual funds. The new Money Market Mutual Liquidity Fund will provide loans to financial institutions to buy assets from prime money market funds.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index fell 5.87% to 5,192.55, underperforming other sectoral indices on the NSE.
Mahindra & Mahindra (down 9.21%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 8.99%), Eicher Motors (down 5.65%), Tata Motors (down 3.64%), and Escorts (down 0.8%) declined.
Hero MotoCorp (up 1.83%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.3%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.29%) advanced.
Ashok Leyland tumbled 25.25% to Rs 48.10. The commercial vehicles maker said that the board of directors of the company have approved to acquire upto 19% additional equity shares in Hinduja Leyland Finance (HLFL), from the existing shareholders for a consideration not exceeding Rs 1200 crore.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Shares of InterGlobe Aviation fell 4.93% to Rs 905.35 while SpiceJet tumbled 9.91% to Rs 34.10.
According to data released on Wednesday by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Feb 2020 were 251.50 lakhs as against 238.56 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering annual growth of 5.42% and monthly growth of 8.98%.
DGCA added that the passenger load factor in the month of February 2020 has shown increasing trend primarily due to airlines offering promotional fares resulting in increased demand.
InterGlobe Aviation's (IndiGo) market share stood at 48% in February as compared to 47.9% in January. The airline carried 59.31 lakh million passengers in February, down by 3.09% from 61.20 lakh passengers in January 2020.
SpiceJet flew 18.91 lakh passengers, achieving a 15.3% market share, in February 2020. The company toured 21.24 lakh passengers in January 2020, achieving a 16.6% market share.
Meanwhile, the media reported that IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta has announced a pay cut for all employees, with a 25% cut in his own salary. This comes in the wake of a severe hit in the aviation industry owing to travel bans imposed by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Senior vice presidents of the company and positions above that will be taking a 20% pay cut, while vice presidents and cockpit crew will be looking at a 15% reduction, media reports said.
Motilal Oswal Financial Services slipped 1.64% to Rs 555.95. The company said that its board will consider share buyback on 21 March 2020.
TCI Express surged 4.59% to Rs 609. The company said that the direct impact of Coronavirus on its business and operations is expected to be very limited, given our unique asset light model with majority of revenues from the B2B segment. The firm's business fundamentals remain robust with diversified client base and industry presence. Furthermore, the company is engaged in the transportation of intermediate parts and products such as spare parts in case of automobiles, API's in case of pharmaceuticals, which are not impacted by short term demand fluctuations from the end consumer. All the company's routes, branches and sorting centers are operational at almost similar utilization levels as Q3 FY2020.
Wipro fell 2.09% to Rs 166.25. The company announced the launch of its Microsoft Business Unit. The unit will focus on the development and evangelization of solutions leveraging Microsoft's enterprise cloud services.
Yes Bank fell 10.28% to Rs 54.55. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday withdrew its moratorium imposed on the private lender, allowing restoration of all banking operations. This came after a consortium of eight public and private banks, led by State Bank of India, agreed to infuse capital into Yes Bank to rescue it under the restructuring plan proposed by the government and RBI.
Meanwhile, Madhu Kapur sold 2.48 crore shares of Yes Bank in a block deal on NSE at Rs 65.07 each on Wednesday (18 March 2020).
Madhu Kapur held 17.27 crore shares, or 1.377% stake in Yes Bank as on 17 March 2020. Madhu Kapur is wife of the late Ashok Kapur, who founded the private lender along with Rana Kapoor in 2004.
As per Yes Bank's restructuring scheme, investors owning more than 100 shares are being subject to a three-year lock-in for 75% of their total investment.
JSW Steel were down 4.03% at Rs 157.25. JSW Steel informed that CARE Ratings had revised the company's long term (bank facilities, non-convertible debenture) rating to 'CARE AA- (Stable)' from 'CARE AA (Negative)'. CARE Ratings said that the revision in ratings assigned mainly takes into account slower than expected recovery in the steel prices, leading to contraction in the operating margins as reflected from the subdued financial performance of the company during 9MFY20.
Alphageo (India) rose 1.56% to Rs 140 after the company said it received notification of award (NOA) of a contract worth Rs 76.67 crore from Oil India.
V.S.T Tillers Tractors shed 7.63% after the company reported dismal February sales figures. The commercial vehicle manufacturer reported an 8.96% decline in power tiller sales to 1361 units in February 2020 from 1495 units in February 2019. Tractor sales fell 2.93% to 564 units in February 2020 from 581 units in February 2019.
IFB Industries announced that it has commenced commercial production of company's new projection located in Goa from 17 March 2020. The new project will manufacture split air conditioners. Shares of IFB Industries fell 7.05% to Rs 273.
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