Localised lockdowns weigh; Sensex declines 244 points amid volatility

21/04/2021

Mumbai, apr 20: A sharp sell-off in the fag-end of the session engulfed markets on Tuesday as incidents of localised lockdowns increased in the country.
The economically important state of Maharashtra tightened Covid-19-related curbs, allowing shops to stay open only between 7 AM and 11 AM, while eastern state of Jharkhand announced a complete lockdown for a week, starting Wednesday.
Amid this, the BSE barometer Sensex dropped over 1,000 points from day's high to hit a low of 47,438 in the intra-day trade as investors dumped IT, financials, and heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HUL, and Ultratech Cement.
The index, however, staged a mild recovery to eventually close at 47,706 levels, down 244 points or 0.5 per cent, with Ultratech Cement, HCL Tech, HDFC, Tech M, HUL, ITC, and HDFC Bank leading the list of losers. All these stocks declined between 1 per cent and 5 per cent.
On the NSE, the 50-share index hit an intra-day low of 14,207 before settling at 14,296 levels, down 63 points or 0.44 per cent. About 27 of the 50 constituents ended the day in the red. Bucking the trend were players like Dr Reddy's Labs, Bajaj twins, HDFC Life, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, and Tata Consumer Products, rising up to 3.5 per cent.
The broader markets, however, managed to duck the bear onslaught and supported the overall market breadth.
The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices gained 0.5 per cent each. Overall market breadth was tilted towards bulls with 1,654 stocks advancing on the BSE as against 1,228 stocks that declined.
Sectorally, the Nifty IT index, down 1.4 per cent, faced the hardest knock amid weakness in global tech stocks. That apart, the Nifty FMCG and Bank indices ended 0.64 per cent and 0.35 per cent lower, respectively.
On the upside, the Nifty Pharma index ended 1.3 per cent higher at 13,427 after hitting record high of 13,522 (up 2 per cent) in the intra-day trade.
Individually, Cipla, Gland Pharma, JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Max Healthcare, Neuland Laboratories and Apollo Hospital Enterprises hit their respective record highs today while Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Cadila Healthcare, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Panacea Biotech and RPG Lifesicenes hit 52-week highs in the intra-day trade as the Indian government will open up vaccination to anyone over 18 years of age starting May 1.
Global shares edged further back from record highs on Tuesday as lofty sovereign bond yields and rising global COVID-19 cases had investors questioning high equity valuations.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2 per cent but Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2 per cent on worries that the possible reintroduction of Covid-19 emergency measures in the country’s biggest cities would slow the economic recovery. In Europe, the UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.4 per cent, Germany’s DAX was down 0.1 per cent and France’s CAC 40 declined 0.7 per cent. The pan-regional STOXX 600 index dropped 0.5 per cent.

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