Monday Mayhem As Sensex Plunges 1941.67 Points, Nifty Below 11,000 Mark

March 9, Mumbai: 

The Indian stock market on March 9, 2020 witnessed a massive downslide led by weak global cues owing to crash in crude oil prices. The S&P BSE Sensex hit a low of 35,109.18 down by 2,467.44 points during intraday as compared to the previous closing of 37,576.62 on 6th March.  Whereas the NSE Nifty 50 hit a low of 10,294.45 during the intraday. Sensex closed at 35,634.95 down by 1941.67 points or 5.17 per cent and Nifty 50 index ended at 10,451.45 down by 538 points or 4.90 per cent. “Indian markets are facing a deluge of negative triggers. Global markets are plunging after the break of an alliance between OPEC and Russia resulting in the worst one-day crash in crude prices (more than 30 per cent) in nearly 30 years, fuelling panic triggered by the escalation of the coronavirus epidemic. The panic began after Saudi Arabia shocked oil markets by launching a price war,” says Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities. 

Further the broader markets including, BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap witnessed a decline by 4.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively. The sectors which were in red were Metals (-7.6 per cent), IT (-5.4 per cent), Oil & Gas (-5.2 per cent) and Banking (-5 per cent) which witnessed a heavy selling pressure and were the top losers. “We expect Indian markets to remain under pressure in the near-term since the sentiments are weak on the worries of slowdown across the globe.  Investors would continue to monitor crude oil prices, currency movement and the updates on spread of coronavirus cases as these factors are keeping the markets on edge. On the domestic front, inflation data such as IIP and CPI scheduled this week would be on investor’s radar,” says Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking. 

Apart from the global market which is under high pressure, the market experts believe that developing Asian economies would also be adversely impacted. “Sentiments remained downbeat as Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated that the coronavirus outbreak has the potential to significantly harm the Asian economies, and the global economy may suffer losses of $77-347 billion. It also said the virus outbreak may impact developing Asian economies through numerous channels, including sharp declines in domestic demand, lower tourism and business travel, trade and production linkages, supply disruptions, and health effects,” points out Narendra Solanki, Head Fundamental Research (Investment Services) - AVP Equity Research, Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers.