MARKETS: Sensex down 242 pts, Nifty ends at 9,199; FMCG, financials decline

All that happened in the markets today

Brokers trade at their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai. Photo: Reuters

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. READ MORE

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. READ MORE

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. READ MORE

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). READ MORE

Global markets

World shares climbed on Thursday after Chinese exports proved far stronger than even bulls had imagined, while bond investors were still daunted by the staggering amount of US debt set to be sold and a tussle over ECB bond buying.

Beijing reported exports rose 3.5 per cent in April year-on-year (YoY), completely confounding expectations of a 15.1 per cent fall and outweighing a 14.2 per cent drop in imports.

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 fared better with a bounce of 1.2 per cent, though there were ominous signs too. Turkey’s lira fell to a record low amid worries about its dwindling reserves, oil was back under $30 a barrel and Italy’s bond yields hit 2 per cent again.

European shares rose too.

In commodities, oil prices extended losses as the industry grappled with the growing global surplus of crude and the sharp coronavirus-led downturn in demand, with the outlook still grim despite April data showing a rise in imports into China.

(With inputs from Reuters)

4:08 PM

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

"Nifty held on to 9,100 levels in another volatile day of trade. Bluechip financial stocks contributed most to the losses in the market, due to anticipated increase in NPAs during this period. There is no respite in the number of domestic virus infections and markets are worried about a further extension in lockdown, which could severely impact already weak corporate earnings and the economy. With increasing crude oil inventories and countries struggling to implement supply cuts, crude oil price also dropped. This indicates that the global economy is still not on the recovery path yet, inspite of many countries beginning to emerge from lockdowns. Indian markets are expected to traded volatile, tracking domestic news regarding the spread of infections".

3:55 PM

SECTOR WATCH | Here's how sectoral indices on NSE performed today

3:45 PM

MARKET AT CLOSE | Losers and gainers on the S&P BSE Sensex

3:41 PM

CLOSING BELL

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 242 points or 0.76 per cent to end at 31,443.38 while NSE's Nifty ended at 9,199, down 72 points or 0.78 per cent.

3:28 PM

MARKET CHECK

3:19 PM

MARKET CHECK | Top 5 gainers on the BSE at this hour

3:08 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW:: Centrum Broking on NIIT Tech

We believe NIIT Tech’s commentary is strongest among peer set which have declared results till date and this confidence appears to be backed by steady deal wins. NIIT Tech guided that EBIDTA margin could drop by ~80bps YoY in FY21E (from FY20 Adjusted EBIDTA margin base) owing to slower growth. Post strong revenue growth in 4Q, we model NIIT Tech to deliver 0.5/12.9% USD revenue growth for FY21E/FY22E (0.5%/11.5% modelled earlier). We build RSU charges, which would weigh on FY21E EPS. We lower FY21E EPS by 5.5% owing to RSU expenses, but retain FY22 EPS. Stock trades at 13.4x FY22E EPS which is at 18/10% discount to Mindtree/LTI respectively. We raise target price by 3% to Rs 1,470/sh (16.5x FY22E EPS vs 16x earlier). Retain BUY.

3:02 PM

Nifty sectoral trends at this hour; Nifty FMCG index top drag

3:02 PM

NEWS ALERT | SBI reduces lending late by 15 bps across all tenors

2:53 PM

MARKET UPDATE | Bharti Airtel slips over 3%

2:52 PM

Covid-19 lockdown to cause Rs 25,000 cr loss in revenue to aviation: Crisil

The extended lockdown to contain Covid-19 pandemic which has stalled traffic on the ground as in the air is expected to heap enormous losses on infrastructure industries in both sectors, analytics company Crisil said on Thursday. Its estimates indicate that the aviation industry will crash-land this fiscal year with a revenue loss of Rs 24,000 crore to 25,000 crore. READ MORE

flights, airlines, aircraft, passengers, aviation

2:40 PM

NEWS ALERT | Bank of England sees worst slump in 300 years as coronavirus bites, reports Reuters

The Bank of England said Britain could be headed for its biggest economic slump in over 300 years due to the coronavirus lockdown and kept the door open on Thursday for further stimulus. In what it called an ‘illustrative scenario’ rather than a standard forecast, the BoE said Britain’s economy was on course to shrink by 25% in the three months to June and for unemployment to jump to more than 9% of the workforce.

2:40 PM