Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks witnessed bloodbath on Monday, with both Sensex and Nifty ending in deep red. After a negative start, key indices remained lower for the whole trading session, as breaking all records, India has recorded a massive surge of 169,899 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Worldometer showed that with this, India has once again taken its spot as the second-worst hit nation with 13,525,364 cases in total. Besides, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn a net Rs 929 crore from Indian markets so far this month amid concerns over rising COVID-19 cases denting the economic recovery.

Bears held a tight grip over the Dalal Street in trading session. Domestic sentiments remained negative, as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has stated that the recent spike in Covid-19 cases along with associated lockdowns, though localised, could disrupt foreign portfolio investments as well as domestic credit markets. It said India's second round of Covid outbreak is moving in a direction different from the global trend.  Besides, amid recent spike in coronavirus cases, Fitch Ratings has said the second wave of COVID-19 infections poses increased risks for India’s fragile economic recovery and its banks.

Markets remained under pressure in the second half of trading session, after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.415 billion to stand at $576.869 billion in the week ended April 2. Besides, making a strong case for an additional economic stimulus to address the impact of the pandemic on the country's economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Chief Economist, Petya Koeva Brooks has said that India, which is projected to grow at an impressive rate of 12.5 percent this year, needs to grow at a much faster pace to make up for the unprecedented contraction of eight percent that it clocked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower as investors held off from making big bets ahead of the earnings season, while British retailers were set to reopen as the economy emerges from a strict winter lockdown. Asian markets closed mostly down on Monday, after producer prices in Japan were up 1.0 percent on year in March, the Bank of Japan said on Monday - exceeding expectations for 0.5 percent following the upwardly revised 0.6 percent contraction in February (originally -0.7 percent). On a monthly basis, producer prices jumped 0.8 percent - again exceeding expectations for 0.4 percent and up from 0.6 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 47883.38, down by 1707.94 points or 3.44% after trading in a range of 47693.44 and 48956.65. There was 1 stock advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 5.32%, while Small cap index was down by 4.81%. (Provisional)

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 7.70%, PSU down by 6.00%, Industrials down by 5.93%, Metal down by 5.65% and Basic Materials down by 5.28%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. (Provisional)

The only gainer on the Sensex was Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 4.83%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 8.60%, Bajaj Finance down by 7.39%, SBI down by 6.87%, ONGC down by 5.54% and Titan Co down by 5.24% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in its latest report showed that passenger vehicle wholesales declined by 2.24 per cent to 27,11,457 units in the 2020-21 fiscal as against 27,73,519 units in 2019-20.

The report further noted that total two-wheeler dispatches during the last fiscal by companies to their respective dealer partners declined by 13.19 per cent to 1,51,19,387 units, as compared to 1,74,16,432 units in 2019-20. Also, total commercial vehicles sales declined by 20.77 per cent to 5,68,559 units last financial year, as against 7,17,593 units in 2019-20.

As per the report, dispatches of three-wheelers saw a drop of 66.06 per cent in the 2020-21 fiscal at 2,16,197 units, as against 6,37,065 units in 2019-20, while vehicle sales across categories declined by 13.6 per cent to 1,86,15,588 units, as against 2,15,45,551 units in the year-ago period.

 The CNX Nifty ended at 14310.80, down by 524.05 points or 3.53% after trading in a range of 14248.70 and 14652.50. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 4.97%, Cipla up by 2.19%, Divis Lab up by 0.73% and Britannia up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 9.95%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 9.59%, Indusind Bank down by 8.58%, Bajaj Finance down by 7.42% and UPL down by 7.14% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 56.98 points or 0.82% to 6,858.77, France’s CAC decreased 15.35 points or 0.25% to 6,154.06 and Germany’s DAX was down by 14.20 points or 0.09% to 15,219.96.

Asian markets closed mostly down on Monday amid concerns over resurgence of corona-virus infections globally. Chinese shares ended lower after China's leading disease control official admits that the effectiveness of Chinese corona-virus vaccines was low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Further, Japanese shares fell as the country is struggling to get the fourth wave of infections under control as it prepares to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. However, Alibaba Group Holding shares jumped in Hong Kong, even after China's antitrust regulator slapped a record $2.8 billion penalty on the e-commerce giant following a month long investigation.