Sensex tanks 465 points; Nifty cracks 14,500

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Late trade selloff in a range-bound session dragged benchmark indices on reports of banks approaching the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to grant a 3-month moratorium period courtesy slowdown in economic activity. At close, the Sensex tanked 465 points or 0.95% at 48,253, and the Nifty lost 137 points or 0.94% at 14,496. About 1374 shares have advanced, 1534 shares declined, and 169 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy’s, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and HDFC twins lost up to 2.25%. On the other hand, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, TCS, SBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top gainers on the Sensex.

Barring Nifty PSU Bank all other sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty PSU Bank ended with gains of around 3.5%. Whereas Nifty Pharma lost the most and ended 2% lower, followed by Nifty Auto index sank 0.88% and Nifty IT, Nifty FMCG & Nifty Metal slipped over 0.50%.

“Domestic equities gave up gains towards the second half of the day and fell sharply as mounting uncertainty led by rise in second wave of COVID-19 cases weighed on investors’ sentiments,” said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

In the broader market the pain was much less as BSE Midcap & BSE Smallcap indices lost a little over 0.5% compared to almost a per cent. Market breadth also turned negative as 1,078 shares declined versus 808 stocks advancing while 361 scrips remained unchanged.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong and Seoul ended on a positive note. Stock exchanges in Shanghai and Tokyo were closed for holidays.

Equities in Europe were largely trading with gains in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark brent crude was trading 1.79% higher at USD 68.77 per barrel.