Sensex Slips Over 1,000 Points; Banking and Finance Stocks Bleed

Wed, 18 Mar 12:30 pm

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Share markets in India are presently trading deep in the red. While Indian share markets opened on a positive note today, gains were erased as the session progressed amid panic selling as coronavirus fears mounted.

Barring IT sector, all sectoral indices are trading on a negative note with stocks in the banking sector, finance sector and telecom sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

The BSE Sensex gave up the 30,000-mark, and is presently trading down by 1,023 points (down 3.4%). Meanwhile, the broader NSE Nifty is trading down by 297 points (down 3.3%).

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are trading down by 3.6% and 4.3%, respectively.

The rupee is trading at Rs 74.17 against the US$.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, our smallcap analyst at Equitymaster, Richa Agarwal, believes this is a time to not panic and remain invested in the good quality smallcap stocks, irrespective of the volatility.

She believes the best approach is to consider investing in stocks that are fundamentally strong and promise steady income along with strong upside in the long term.

Richa has identified one such stock that has the potential to return crores in the long term. To know more, click here for all the details.

In news from the pharma sector, shares of Dr Lal PathLabs rose over 8% today after the government said it will allow private laboratories to do testing of coronavirus.

The government is exploring the possibility of allowing private laboratories to ramp up testing as the number of cases of coronavirus disease are increasing in India.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 147, with 10 fresh cases reported from various parts of the country.

Dr Lal PathLabs share price is presently trading up by 3%.

In other news, Sun Pharma share price is in focus today. The company's board on Tuesday approved the buyback of its equity shares from the open market at a maximum price of Rs 425 per share for an aggregate maximum amount of up to Rs 17 billion.

At the maximum buy-back size and the maximum buy-back price, the indicative maximum number of equity shares to be bought back under the buy-back would represent 1.67% of the total number of equity shares of the company.

Speaking of the pharma sector, co-head of research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee talks in great detail about the sector in the video below.

She tells us where the sector stands now and also about the potential for a rebound.

Watch Now...

Moving on to news from the banking sector, shares of Yes Bank jumped 50% in early trade today as the private lender is all set to resume full banking services from 6 pm today.

Yes Bank CEO-designate Prashant Kumar said there are absolutely no worries on the liquidity front and that complete operational normalcy would be restored from 6 pm on Wednesday.

The private lender is also hoping to recover about Rs 85 billion from its loan defaulters in the coming financial year.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Kumar said the bank had made adequate preparations for any surge in withdrawal of deposits.

He said that "all our ATMs and branches are sufficiently filled with cash and we will not need any external liquidity support. But, if the need comes, we have lines available."

Kumar added that only a third of customers have withdrawn the entire amount of Rs 50,000 allowed during the moratorium.

Earlier this week on Monday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had assured liquidity support if the need arose.

On March 5, the RBI had imposed a moratorium on the private lender, restricting withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till April 3, in view of its poor financial health due to bad loans.

Last week, Yes Bank reported a record loss of Rs 185.6 billion for Q3FY20 due to a sharp jump in bad loans and higher provisioning.

In the December-quarter results, Yes Bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) more than doubled to Rs 407.1 billion from Rs 171.3 billion in September.

To know more, you can read Yes Bank's Q3FY20 result analysis on our website.

In one of the articles, we have written about the entire timeline of how YES Bank went from a stock market darling to a pariah. Read the article here: How the YES Bank Collapse Unfolded - 10 Points.

Speaking of the banking sector, the low access to credit for micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) tells us there is a huge opportunity for lenders.

This is evident from the chart below:

India's Huge Lending Opportunity

Of the 60 million MSMEs in India, only 11% had access to credit from organised lenders. Most of them are self-financed or get credit from unorganised sources.

Here's what Tanushree Banerjee wrote about this in one of the editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp...

• Self-financing limits the growth of these MSMEs. On the other hand, high interest rates from unorganised sources makes it difficult for them to earn profits.
  
  The Modi government is looking at various ways to correct this problem. Mudra loans, online loans facilities are being made available to MSMEs.
  
  Slowly but surely, lenders are sensing the huge opportunity that lies ahead for this sector.
  
  Banks and other financial firms with prudent lending practices and strong distribution networks will benefit from this megatrend.

Tanushree is counting on 7 top stocks from the Indian stock market that will benefit from this megatrend.

As per her, now is the right time to buy these stocks to profit from the Rebirth of India. You can read about them here.

And 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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