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Markets remain under grip of bears
Mar-30-2020
Indian equity bourses remained under a grip of bears in late morning deals. Investors remained cautious with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that the world is in the face of a devastating impact due to the coronavirus pandemic and has clearly entered a recession, but projected a recovery next year. Anxiety persisted over the street, even after the government constituted 11 empowered groups to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce misery of people as quickly as possible post the 21-day lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, despite Singapore central bank eased its monetary policy by reducing the slope of its policy band as the city-state is expected to enter a deep recession due to the interruptions to economic activity caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said that the bank will adopt a zero percent per annum rate of appreciation of the policy band starting at the prevailing level of the S$NEER. There will be no change to the width of the policy band.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29289.25, down by 526.34 points or 1.77% after trading in a range of 28708.83 and 29497.57. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 1.69%, while Small cap index was down by 0.90%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.09%, Healthcare up by 0.92%, Oil & Gas up by 0.61% and Energy up by 0.38%, while Realty down by 4.43%, Auto down by 3.58%, Capital Goods down by 2.69%, Metal down by 2.27% and Industrials down by 2.15% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 4.82%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.77%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.32%, TCS up by 2.10% and Indusind Bank was up by 1.95%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 8.94%, HDFC down by 5.83%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 5.36%, Tata Steel down by 4.43% and HDFC Bank down by 3.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General Rajan S Mathews has said that debt-ridden telecom operators (Telcos) are likely to opt for three-month moratorium to avoid cash crunch in the wake of the nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of Covid-19. He also said the telecom operators have spoken in favour of increasing mobile call and internet rates at the earliest, however they will keep the prices stable during the lockdown period.

Mathews has stated that there is debt of around Rs 1.6-2 lakh crore that telecom operators owe to Indian banks. He said they will opt three-month moratorium in loan repayment to help them maintain cash flow. He also said that COAI allayed fear of hike in tariff by the telecom operators. He added telecom companies understand market situation and they will give tariff stable for now.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to put on hold equity monthly installment (EMI) payments on all term loans for three months, slashed the cost of fresh borrowing by cutting policy interest rate by steepest in more than 11 years and infused a massive Rs 3.74 lakh crore liquidity as it joined the government effort to buffer the economy from the consequences of Covid-19 pandemic. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8518.45, down by 141.80 points or 1.64% after trading in a range of 8333.60 and 8576.00. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 4.78%, GAIL India up by 3.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.55%, Cipla up by 3.03% and BPCL up by 2.94%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 9.23%, Eicher Motors down by 6.39%, HDFC down by 5.84%, JSW Steel down by 5.25% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 5.13% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 fell 519.81 points or 2.68% to 18,869.62, Straits Times dropped 98.77 points or 3.91% to 2,429.99, Hang Seng plunged 303.21 points or 1.29% to 23,181.07, Taiwan Weighted declined 95.07 points or 0.98% to 9,603.85, KOSPI fell 17.10 points or 1.00% to 1,700.63, Jakarta Composite slumped 187.23 points or 4.12% to 4,358.34 and Shanghai Composite was down by 44.13 points or 1.59% to 2,728.07.
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