Sensex plunges 310.21 points, Nifty settles at 8925.30; UPL, HUL, Britannia Industries major gainers

Image courtesy: Reuters

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices on Wednesday (April 15) erased early gains to close lower with the Sensex down 310.21 points or 1.01% at 30379.81, while the broader Nifty closing down 68.55 points or 0.76% at 8925.30. Major gainers on the Nifty were UPL, HUL, Britannia Industries, and HCL Tech, while Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, and HDFC Bank were among major losers.

In the afternoon trade, the Sensex was trading 355.60 points down or 1.16% at 30334.42, and the Nifty was also down 84.45 points or 0.94% at 8909.40. 

During early hours today, equity benchmark indices moved up following positive cues from global markets. At 10:15 am, the BSE Sensex was up by 758 points or 2.56 per cent at 31,448 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 222 points at 9,216. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma gaining by 3.76 per cent, FMCG by 2.6 per cent, PSU bank by 2.3 per cent and realty by 1.9 per cent.

Among stocks, chemical major UPL gained by 10 per cent to Rs 357.40 per share. Hindalco was up by 4.8 per cent, Sun Pharma by 4.7 per cent, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank by 4.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.The other major gainers were Britannia, Hindustan Lever, Larsen & Toubro and Grasim. However, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Infratel, Bajaj Finance and Maruti traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian equities were lower in morning trade today, bucking an overnight rally on Wall Street prompted by encouraging signs that US coronavirus infection rates were in decline. American officials are beginning to tackle the question of how to safely reopen for business and ease lockdowns that have helped slow the pandemic but battered the economy.

Major indices on Wall Street gained more than two percent overnight on signs that new virus cases had fallen in some of the country's biggest hotspots, including New York. But analysts said it was too soon to herald a broader market turnaround, after the International Monetary Fund forecast a 5.9 percent contraction for the US economy this year and the worst global downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Shanghai fell 0.3 percent in morning trade and Hong Kong was 0.2 percent lower despite export data on Tuesday showing that Chinese trade volumes had fallen less than feared. Economists polled by AFP have forecast an 8.2 percent first-quarter GDP drop for the world's second-largest economy -- China's first contraction in around 30 years -- ahead of official figures due for release on Friday.

Tokyo slid 0.6 percent after a sharp rise in the last session as a stronger yen weighed on investor sentiment.
Sydney was 0.4 percent lower and Singapore fell 0.1 percent but Seoul was up 1.7 percent as South Korea voted in national parliamentary elections.

Oil futures rose in Asian trade but were still well lower than last week despite the weekend deal by producer nations to cut output by nearly 10 million barrels per day from May. Prices had been battered after the coronavirus outbreak sent demand off a cliff, with a Saudi-Russian price war compounding the crisis.

(With Agency Inputs)