Market Wrap, March 30: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Equity markets witnessed yet another weak session on Monday as the coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in India continued to rise despite nationwide lockdown. So far, confirmed cases in India have reached 1,071 while 29 people have died due to the disease.

 

Further, weak global cues such as fall in global markets and plunge in crude oil prices, too, adversely impacted the investor sentiment.
 

The S&P BSE Sensex today slipped 1,375 points or 4.61 per cent to settle at 28,440. Bajaj Finance (down 12 per cent) emerged as the biggest loser on the index while Tech Mahindra was the top performer - up 5 per cent. 
 

HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Reliance Industries (RIL) contributed the most to the index's losses.
 

Market breadth was in favour of declines as out of 2,453 companies traded on the BSE, 1,347 declined and 934 advanced while 172 remained unchanged.
 

Among individual stocks, Abbott India hit a new high in a weak market amid report that Abbott Laboratories, USA, the ulitmate holding company, has received the approval to launch 5-minute coronavirus (COVID-19) test for use almost anywhere. Abbott India is a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories of USA. The stock ended at Rs 15,400 apiece on the BSE, up around 9 per cent. 
 

On the NSE, frontline index Nifty ended at 8,281, down 379 points or 4.38 per cent. Volatility index India VIX increased 1.53 per cent to 71.46 levels. On the sectoral front, barring pharma and FMCG, all the indices ended in the red. Nifty Bank tumbled over 6 per cent to 18,760 levels while Nifty Finacial Services pack tanked around 7.5 per cent to 9,029-mark. 
 

In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 index slipped 2.8 per cent to 11,435 levels and the Nifty SmallCap 100 index lost 2.3 per cent to 3,485 levels.
 

Global Markets 
 

Asian shares slid on Monday as fears mounted that the global coronavirus shutdown could last for months although markets regained some lost ground late in the session with Australia posting a standout jump. US and European futures also turned upwards in the Asian afternoon, with E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 up 1.1%, again after earlier losses, EUROSTOXXX 50 futures rallying 2% and FTSE futures 1.5%.
 

In commodity market, Crude oil fell sharply with US crude briefly dropping below $20 and Brent hitting its lowest level in 18 years, on heightened fears that the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and demand for fuel could evaporate further.