Sensex plunges over 800 points, Nifty ends below 9,000; Yes Bank, Eicher Motors, HUL major gainers

Image courtesy: Reuters

New Delhi: Equity indices on Tuesday (March 17) ended lower for the second consecutive session with the Sensex down 810.98 points or 2.58% at 30,579.09. The broader Nifty also ended down 230.70 points or 2.51% at 8,966.70. Major gainers on the Nifty were Yes Bank, Eicher Motors, HUL, and Maruti Suzuki, while Zee Entertainment, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Bharti Infratel were the top losers.

Equity indices reversed early losses on Tuesday morning after shares in Wall Street plunged to their biggest day drop in more than three decades overnight.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 435 points or 1.39 per cent to 31,825 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 145 points or 1.57 per cent to 9,342. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma up by 3.1 per cent, metal by 2.3 per cent, FMCG and auto by 1.5 per cent each and PSU bank by 1.1 per cent.

Among stocks, Yes Bank surged ahead by 30.32 per cent to Rs 48.35 per share a day after RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the moratorium on private sector lender will be lifted on Wednesday evening and that the depositors` money is absolutely safe.

Sun Pharma gained by 5.3 per cent, Adani Ports by 4.8 per cent and Bharat Petroleum Corporation by 4.6 per cent. Metal majors Tata Steel and Vedanta were up by 4.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

The other prominent winners were HCL Technologies, Coal India, Eicher Motors and ONGC. But UPL, Bharti Infratel, Bajaj Finserv and Kotak Mahindra Bank were in the red.

Meanwhile, most Asian shares fell a day after Wall Street`s historic market rout. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan gave up early gains to trade 0.43 per cent lower. Japan`s Nikkei slid by 2.79 per cent and South Korea`s Kospi was off 3.2 per cent.

Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since the crash of 1987 on Monday after unprecedented steps taken by the Federal Reserve, lawmakers and the White House to slow the spread and blunt the economic hit of the coronavirus failed to restore order to markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,997 points or 12.93 per cent to 20,189, the S&P 500 lost 325 points or 11.98 per cent to 2,386 while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 970 points or 12.32 per cent to 6,905. 

The Philippines became the first country to shut down its stock market as the country goes into lockdown, and the bourse will be closed until further notice. Sydney rose 5.8 percent, a day after crashing 9.7 percent in its worst day on record.

In early trade, London rose 2.9 percent and Frankfurt surged 4.5 percent, while in Paris, where the market regulator banned short-selling on 92 stocks, the CAC 40 rallied four percent.

Wall Street indices collapsed Monday in their worst day since 1987, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropping about 12 percent and the Dow sinking nearly 13 percent. US futures rallied Tuesday.

Oil prices edged up after Monday's collapse that saw Brent falling more than 12 percent to a four-year low, and WTI sliding below $30 a barrel. Adding to the weakness in crude markets is the price war between major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia.

(With Agency Inputs)