Market Wrap, April 23: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Spooked by the strong second wave of Covid-19 and its impact on India's economic recovery, the stock markets plunged in Friday's session, although, a firm global market sentiment helped contain the downside.

India on Friday reported over 3 lakh cases for the second straight day, a new record for any country in the world. To control the spread, many states have imposed lockdown-like restrictions which experts worry could harm the GDP growth.

According to a report by SBI, the stringent mobility curbs and lockdowns put across key Indian cities will dent the economic momentum and will result in an economic loss of Rs 1.5 trillion. Against this backdrop, SBI lowered the FY22 GDP projection to 10.4% for real GDP from earlier 11%.

India Ratings too followed suit as it slashed India's FY22 real GDP growth forecast to 10.1% from 10.4% earlier, citing the second wave of Covid-19 infections and slower pace of vaccination.

Amid this backdrop, the BSE Sensex settled the day 202 points down at 47,878, dragged lower by the weakness in ICICI Bank, Infosys, HUL and HDFC Bank. However, high volatility marked the session, with the index oscillating 600 points today.

NSE's Nifty50 index, meanwhile, shut shop at 14,341, down 65 points. In the holiday-shortened week, the benchmark indices shed nearly 2 per cent.

The traders are advised to refrain from building a fresh buying position until we witness a correction till 14,180-14,200 level or a breakout above the 14,400, advised Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research at CapitalVia Global.

Only eight stocks ended higher in the 30-pack Sensex with Power Grid as the best performer, up 3.51%, followed by NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC. On the other hand, M&M, DRL, HUL and Airtel were the top laggards, down between 2-3%.

On the sectoral front, barring Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Media, all indices ended in the red. Nifty Realty was the worst loser, down 1.1% followed by Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark as the Nifty Midcap index added 0.26% and the Nifty Smallcap 0.26%.

A look at the stocks that buzzed in trade today.

Shares of Cadila Healthcare jumped 3.43% to settle at Rs 571.20 after Zydus Cadila announced that it has received restricted emergency use approval from the regulator Drug Controller General of India for the use of ‘Virafin’ in treating moderate coronavirus infection in adults. During the trials, a higher proportion of patients administered with the drug were RT PCR negative by day 7, the company said.

Shares of Laurus Labs hit a new high of Rs 467.90, up 3 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday in an otherwise subdued market. The stock finally settled the day at Rs 465.50, up 2.68%. In the past one month, the stock has rallied 30% on the expectation of a strong performance by the company’s formulations segment.

Shares of ICICI Bank declined 1.57% ahead of its March quarter numbers, slated to be out tomorrow. Healthy loan growth and leaner provisioning may aid ICICI Bank to report an over 300 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit for the March quarter of the financial year 2020-21 (Q4FY21), believe analysts.

HCL Technologies dipped 0.56% ahead of its Q4 numbers that are scheduled to be out today. Brokerages expect the IT company's PAT to decline between 26-31% QoQ on a one-time bonus impact.

Wipro, meanwhile, pipped HCL Tech to become the 3rd most valuable IT company in terms of market capitalisation (market-cap) ranking. Wipro's m-cap stood at 2.60 trillion while that of HCL tech stood at 2.59 trillion.

Now, an update on the global markets.

Global shares steadied on Friday around 1% below record highs reached earlier this week, though Bitcoin hit its lowest in nearly seven weeks as investors assessed the impact of a possible U.S. capital gains tax hike.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.65%, with Chinese blue-chip shares up 0.91% but Japan's Nikkei stock index slid 0.57%.

Bitcoin dropped below the $50,000 level to its lowest level in nearly seven weeks, down 7%. Ethereum slid more than 10% to $2,165.

US futures, meanwhile, gained 0.25%, indicating a firm start for the Wall Street.