Sensex Ends 161 Points Lower; Telecom and Metal Stocks Witness Selling

Tue, 18 Feb Closing

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Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure throughout the day and ended lower, tracking weakness in global markets owing to coronavirus outbreak.

The BSE Sensex stood lower by 161 points, while the NSE Nifty closed down by 53 points.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down by 0.6%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.5%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the telecom sector and metal sector witnessing most of the selling pressure, while IT stocks witnessed buying interest.

Asian stock markets tumbled further amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak that has slowed production and weakened demand in China.

The death toll from China's coronavirus epidemic climbed to 1,868, while the total number of confirmed cases jumped to 72,436.

As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 1.5% while the Nikkei was down 1.4%.

The rupee was trading at 71.48 against the US$.

In news from financial markets space, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi said that the markets regulator is actively looking at recategorization of midcap and smallcap stocks for the mutual funds. SEBI Chief had made a similar comment earlier this month.

To ensure uniformity, the market regulator in 2017 issued a list defining largecap, midcap and smallcap companies. The list is being prepared once in six months by industry body AMFI in consultation with SEBI and stock exchanges.

Besides, to help investors make accurate comparison of schemes, SEBI categorized and rationalised mutual funds schemes.

The whole process was completed by mutual fund houses by June 2018, in which some schemes were merged while a few others saw changes in fundamental attributes.

Active fund managers claim that the categorization had taken away their flexibility to invest, resulting in money flowing into a set of stocks, impacting mutual fund scheme performances.

What effect the above classification will have on Indian stocks remains to be seen. We will keep you updated on all the news from this space.

Speaking of mutual funds, Tanushree Banerjee wrote to you about an irreversible megatrend in the mutual funds space. It is the growth in the assets under management (AUM) of the Indian mutual fund industry.

This is evident in the chart below...

New High for Mutual Fund AUM

Here's what Tanushree wrote about it in yesterday's edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp...

• After a few hiccups in the first half of this fiscal, strong inflows into mutual funds have taken the industry's AUM to a new high.
  
  Can we call it a saturation point?
  
  Far from it!
  
  The total AUM of India's mutual fund industry is just about 13% of India's GDP.
  
  This megatrend of financialisation of savings has a long runway ahead of it.

This is one of the megatrends that will help what Tanushree calls the Rebirth of India.

She has identified the 7 best stocks that will profit from the Rebirth of India. You can read about these top 7 stocks here.

Moving on to news from the commodity space, crude oil was witnessing selling pressure today. Losses were seen on lingering concerns over the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China and its effect on oil demand, tracking losses in financial markets.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week the virus was set to cause oil demand to fall by 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) year-on-year in the first quarter, in what would be the first quarterly drop since the financial crisis in 2009.

However, with some Chinese independent refineries snapping up crude supplies after being absent from the market for weeks, markets held out hopes that China's demand could recover in coming months.

Market participants are also anticipating that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, will approve a proposal to deepen production cuts to tighten global supplies and support prices.

We will keep you updated on how these developments pan out in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Speaking of crude oil, where do you think are oil prices headed? And what does it mean for the Indian markets?

Well, India's no.1 trader, Vijay Bhambwani shares his insights and updates on his YouTube channel regularly.

In one of his videos, he talks about how you can hedge against the rising crude oil prices and also gives a perspective as to what's actually happening in this space.

Tune in to find out more...

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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