Sensex down 150 points, Nifty settles at 12055.80; BPCL, HDFC, Bajaj Finance shine

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices ended lower on Tuesday (January 28) with the Sensex closing down 188.26 points or 0.46% at 40966.86, while Nifty settled down 63.20 points or 0.52% at 12055.80. Major gainers on the Nifty were BPCL, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv, while Vedanta, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and JSW Steel became top losers.

About 985 shares advanced, 1511 shares declined, while 165 shares remained unchanged. 

During early hours on Tuesday, equity benchmark indices were flat as investors globally grappled to assess the economic impact of China`s new coronavirus. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 21 points to 41,174 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 3 points at 12,116. 

At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty IT, FMCG, and metal in the red. Among stocks, HDFC gained by 2.8 per cent to Rs 2,463 per share after reporting a four-fold jump in its Q3 net profit at Rs 8.372 crore due to the one-time gain from the merger of Bandhan Bank with Gruh Finance.

The other prominent gainers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hero MotoCorp, Mahindra & Mahindra and UPL. However, Power Grid Corporation, Nestle India, Vedanta, JSW Steel, and Coal India were in the negative terrain.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks extended a global selloff as China took more drastic steps to combat a deadly coronavirus. As the death toll reached 106 in China, some health experts questioned whether Beijing can contain the virus which has spread to more than 10 countries.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan slumped by 1 per cent in early trading. Japan`s Nikkei was 0.9 per cent down while South Korea`s Kospi index skidded by 3 per cent.

With Chinese markets shut investors were selling the offshore yuan and the Australian dollar as a proxy for risk. Oil was also under pressure as fears about the wider fallout from the virus mounted.

Analysts said travel and tourism would be the hardest-hit sectors together with retail and liquor sales though healthcare and online shopping were seen as likely outperformers.

Australian and New Zealand bonds, however, gained on Tuesday as did Japanese government bonds (JGB) with yields on 10-year JGBs set for their fourth straight day of losses.

The yen, which has been rising for the past five sessions, dipped slightly to 108.98 per dollar. In commodities, Brent crude was off 27 cents at $59.05 while U.S. crude eased 22 cents to $52.92.
Spot gold was flat at $1,581.60.

(With Agency Inputs)