Low investor sentiment takes toll on market movers, rupee suffers fresh losses
Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 1,400 points in early trade on Monday with the country witnessing a record 1,68,912 new Covid-19 infections in a single day. The second round of rampage of the virus has been driving investors away and index heavyweights are suffering losses.
The 30-share BSE index was trading 1,427 points or 2.88 per cent lower at 48,164.32, while the broader NSE Nifty plunged 431.90 points or 2.91 per cent to 14,402.95, in the early hours of Monday.
IndusInd Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, tanking around 8 per cent, followed by SBI, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, Titan, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv and Maruti. Infosys stood as the sole gainer in the market.
The bellwether index had settled 154.89 points or 0.31 per cent lower at 49,591.32, and Nifty slipped 38.95 points or 0.26 per cent to 14,834.85, at the close of Friday’s trade. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market with an offloaded volume of Rs 653.51 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.
“Since the second wave of the pandemic is turning out worse than expected, there is profound uncertainty about its impact on the economy and markets,” says VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The situation is the worst in economically significant Maharashtra. This can impact the market’s assumption of around 11 per cent GDP growth and above 30 per cent earnings growth, he says.
According to the Union health ministry, there are 12,01,009 active cases in India till Monday morning, while 1,21,56,529 people have recovered from disease so far. A total of 904 fatalities in the second wave of Covid-19 has pushed India’s tally of death toll to 1,70,179.
The rising concern over pandemic drove the Indian rupee further down against US dollar to 74.95 as against 74.75 in the previous session. “Support is at 74.60-74.50 levels in coming session,” says Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities at CapitalVia Global Research Limited. “The Dollar Index is trading below $92.50 level indicating for sideways momentum within the range $92.05-$92.55 levels. The USDINR future could trade in a range of 75.00 -75.40 levels in today’s session.”
The international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.05 per cent higher at $62.98 per barrel on Monday morning.