The market extended losses for the fourth straight session on Thursday. The benchmark indices slumped in morning trade, but recovered gradually as the session progressed. The market briefly entered positive terrain in the afternoon trade. The recovery proved to be short lived as selling emerged at higher levels. Trading was volatile throughout the day on account of weekly expiry of index options on the NSE.
The S&P BSE Sensex, fell 581.28 points or 2.01% at 28,288.23. The index crashed 2155.05 points at the day's low of 26,714.46 in early trade.
The Nifty 50 index lost 205.35 points or 2.42% at 8,263.45. It fell as much as 636.25 points at the day's low of 7,832.55.
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.
The broader market extended slump. The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 3.70% and the BSE Small-Cap index dropped 4.53%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 574 shares rose and 1828 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.
With today's decline, the Nifty 50 index has fallen 33.52% from its record high of 12,430.50 hit on 20 January 2020.
COVID-19 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.
Numbers to Watch:
The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 6.408% at 16:55 IST compared with 6.296% at close in the previous trading session.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 74.98, compared with its close of 74.2625 during the previous trading session. The rupee hit a low of 75.3025 in intraday today.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2020 settlement rose $1.42 at $26.30 a barrel. The contract fell $3.85 or 13.40% to settle at $24.88 a barrel during the previous trading session.
Foreign Markets:
Shares in Europe and Asia fell across the board on Thursday amid concerns various policy moves by governments and central banks will not be enough to stop the coronavirus pandemic causing a severe recession.
The European Central Bank (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 slumped 5.84% to 5,194.60. The index has fallen 15.97% in four straight sessions.
Maruti Suzuki India (down 9.85%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 9.28%), Eicher Motors (down 5.61%), Tata Motors (down 3.38%) and Escorts (down 0.36%) tumbled.
Two-wheeler stocks bucked weak market trend. Hero MotoCorp (up 2.39%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.8%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.7%), advanced.
Commercial vehicles maker 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.
V.S.T Tillers Tractors shed 9.52%. 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.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Shares of InterGlobe Aviation fell 4.56% to Rs 908.85 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 1.80% to Rs 555. The company said that its board will consider share buyback on 21 March 2020.
Emami fell 8.58% to Rs 172.65. The company on Thursday (19 March 2020) said its board approved a Rs 194.08 crore share buyback offer at a maximum price of Rs 300 per share. The indicative maximum number of equity shares proposed to be bought back at the maximum buyback size and maximum buyback price would be 64.69 lakh shares, representing 1.43% of the existing paid up equity capital. Further, the board also declared payment of second interim dividend of Rs 2 per equity share for the FY 2019-2020. The record date is set on 27 March 2020.
Kalpataru Power Transmission fell 5.42% to Rs 206.10. The company said that its board will consider share buyback on 24 March 2020.
TCI Express surged 8.43% to Rs 631.35. 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.
Yes Bank fell 11.35% to Rs 53.90. 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 fell 0.73% at Rs 162.65. 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) fell 3.52% to Rs 133. The company said it received notification of award (NOA) of a contract worth Rs 76.67 crore from Oil India.
IFB Industries fell 3.64% to Rs 283. The company 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.
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