Market Wrap, May 7: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Equity market ended yet another volatile session in the negative territory on Thursday amid a lack of positive triggers. The market witnessed across-the-board sell-off with financial and consumer stocks falling the most. Further, jump in Covid-19 cases in India also dented the sentiment. According to the health ministry, the number of Covid-19 cases reached 52,952 with deaths at 1,783. 

That apart, Bank of England's statement that Britain could be headed for its biggest economic slump in over 300 years due to the coronavirus lockdown also weighed on the investor sentiment. 

The headline index, S&P BSE Sensex, lost 242 points or 0.76 per cent to end at 31,443.38. Of 30 constituents, 25 ended in the red and rest 5 in the green. HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, and ICICI Bank contributed the most to the index's fall.

NSE's Nifty settled at 9,199.05, down 72 points or 0.78 per cent. 

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended at 11,419.68, down 61 points or 0.5 per cent while the S&P BSE SmallCap index slipped 0.14 per cent to 10,686.75 levels. 

Buzzing stocks

Shares of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) slipped 5 per cent to Rs 1,902 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE)  in the early deals after UK-based Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) offloaded its stake in the fast moving consumer goods (FMGC) major via block deals. At the close, the stock settled at Rs 1,992.50, down nearly a per cent. 
 

Shares of YES Bank surged 20 per cent in the intra-day deals after the private lender reported better-than-expected March quarter (Q4FY20) results. For the recently concluded quarter, YES Bank posted a net profit of Rs 2,628.6 crore on the back of on-time gain attributed to an exceptional item of Rs 6,296 crore owing to writing-down additional tier-1 bonds as part of its planned reconstruction scheme. The stock ended at Rs 28.15, up nearly 7 per cent. 

Paint stocks extended their decline into Thursday and slipped up to 5 per cent on the BSE on concerns of demand destruction in the near term due to the outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19).