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

The Nifty Pharma index was the only index that ended in thee green, up 0.17 per cent

5:00 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Sec

The concerns over the unusual surge in Covid cases brought down the market with the benchmark indices breaking the crucial support of 14250/47690.  The market went down to 14200/47360 levels, however, in the second half of the trading session, it recovered back gradually towards 14350/48000 under the leadership of Technology and Pharmaceutical stocks.  Beaten down Bank stocks also recovered from lows that  helped the Bank Nifty to close at the highest point of the day at 31200 levels. Although the market has broken crucial support the market managed to close higher from the lower levels and has formed a hammer pattern.  Tomorrow would be crucial day for the market. Above the levels of 14450/48550, the Nifty would rally to 14570/14650 (49000) levels.  On the other side, 14250/14200 (47650/47300) would act as major supports, however on the dismissal of 14150/47300, Nifty could drop to 14000/46500 levels”

4:53 PM

TECH VIEW :: Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking

On the Technical Front, the benchmark index tested the 61.8% FRL of its previous up move and formed Hammer Candlestick Pattern which suggests a strong bounce back move in the counter. Moreover, the Nifty index has taken support of 100-Exponential Daily Moving Averages as well as an hourly momentum indicator Stochastic has bounced from oversold zone with a positive crossover which points out strength for the upside. At present, the Nifty index has an immediate support at 14150 levels, while on the higher side it may find resistance around 14500 levels

4:41 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Mohit Nigam, Head, PMS & Advisory at Hem Securities

Markets continue to move downwards directly as a consequence of a record number of corona cases. Increase in lockdown restrictions across different parts of the country spooked the market sentiments in the morning session, whereas in the second session we saw a partial recovery. We however believe that the increasing restrictions should not have a severe impact on the day to day working of Nifty 500 companies which by now would have found a way to continue with their operations. Hence, one can invest a part of their corpus to accumulate good quality companies across stable sectors. Technically, the market again rebounded from 14200 levels which is still acting as a strong support

4:29 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities

Indian benchmark equity indices ended lower on April 19 amid fears of impact of the second wave of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdowns on the economy. Nifty opened gap down and made a feeble attempt to rise through the day. At close, the NSE Nifty 50 Index also dropped 1.77% or 258 points to end at 14359.  This made India the worst performing market in Asia. The Indian rupee fell by the most in almost two weeks by about 0.5% to 74.89.

 

Volumes on the NSE were a tad below the recent averages. Among sectors, all ended in the red except Pharma. Financials (especially PSU Bank) led the falling sectors. The Nifty Midcap index fell 1.9% while the Smallcap index declined 1.6%.

 

Nifty has formed a second down gap in 5 days signifying the underlying weakness. However the close today was near the intra day high thereby making a hanging man type of formation. This could mean some more upside recovery in the near term. However at higher levels, markets will keep seeing repeated selling given the impact of Covid second wave on businesses and the economy.

4:22 PM

TECH VIEW :: Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

Index opened a day with strong cuts but in the second half showed decent pullback & closed a day at 14365 with loss of nearly two per cent. The index has formed a hammer candle pattern on the daily chart which hints if current levels are held we may see some positive reversal in coming sessions, a strong base is still at 14250-14200 zone if managed to hold then good recovery possible towards immediate hurdle zone of 14450-14550 zone

 

4:10 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Domestic markets nosedived as surging Covid cases and the imposition of restrictions continued to fan investor worries. Increasing restrictions are forcing investors to reconsider the current valuations. Further, the banking sector pressured the market due to rising concerns over asset quality. As the investors remain focused on the rising covid-19 cases, the market will continue to ride on volatility. We can expect  stability as daily cases fall in the coming weeks due to lockdown, completion of state elections and immunity with vaccination

3:58 PM

EXPERT TAKE :: S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities on Pharma stocks

Pharma Index being the only positive index last week, the start to this week saw a continuation of that trend as pharma stocks stood tall in a weak market marred by rising coronavirus infections across states

3:54 PM

Rupee Closing

Rupee ends weaker at 74.88 per US dollar vs Friday's close of 74.35/$

3:51 PM

BSE Snapshot :: Market breadth firmly in the favour of bears

3:50 PM

Stocks that dragged the Sensex lower today

3:45 PM

Sectoral trends on the NSE :: PSU Bank, Realty indices tank 4%

3:43 PM

Sensex Heatmap :: Dr Reddy's Labs, Infy sole gainers on the index

3:37 PM

CLOSING BELL

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. 

3:28 PM

Covid-19 surge may hit securitisation in the near term, says Crisil

Securitisation volumes may be hit in the near term due to rising Covid-19 cases and the resultant restrictions being imposed in a number of states, according to rating agency Crisil.

 

Many non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) may be compelled to refocus their energies on collections, and fresh disbursements could take a back seat. READ MORE

3:20 PM

TECH VIEW | Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research at CapitalVia Global Research

The market witnessed some swift recovery from its short-term support around the Nifty50 Index level of 14300. The expected level should range between 14300 and 14500, and it’s going to be crucial for the short-term market scenario to hold above the 14300 levels. The market breadth to recover significantly after a gap down opening that causes it to turn deep negative, while other momentum indicators are recovering from oversold reading, market to consolidate in the short term.