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Sensex Opens Lower; Telecom and Metal Stocks Fall
Wed, 1 Apr 09:30 am

Asian stock markets are lower today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Shanghai Composite is off 0.6% while the Hang Seng is down 0.6%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 0.9%. Wall Street's three major indices tumbled on Tuesday, with the Dow registering its biggest quarterly decline since 1987 and the S&P 500 suffering its deepest quarterly drop since the financial crisis on growing evidence of massive economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic.

Back home, India share markets opened lower. The BSE Sensex is trading down by 259 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 88 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.8% and 0.4% respectively.

Except healthcare stocks, all sectoral indices are trading in the red with telecom stocks, metal stocks and IT stocks witnessing maximum selling pressure.

Note that, since the coronavirus outbreak, all BSE indices and NSE indices are down in the range of 25-35%.

Speaking of sectoral impact, in the article titled: Worst Hit Indian Sectors Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: 10 Points to Know, we dive deeper and look at how the impact has been on individual sectors...

Moving on, gold prices are currently trading down by 1.3% at Rs 43,255.

The rupee is currently trading at 75.55 against the US$.

The Indian rupee settled for the day on a flat note at 75.60 against the US dollar on Tuesday, even as the domestic equities witnessed heavy buying on the last day of trading of the 2019-20 fiscal.

Market participants remained cautious as currency markets will remain shut for the next couple of sessions.

Forex markets will remain shut on April 1 for the annual closing of banks and on April 2 on account of Ram Navami.

The rupee, which opened on a positive note at 75.52, settled for the day down 1 paise at 75.60 against the American currency.

Selling by foreign investors also contributed to rupee's fall in past few days.

Note that, India's markets are set to witness the biggest sell-off by foreign investors in a single month in March, as a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus raised fears of a devastating impact on an already-slowing economy.

Reportedly, foreign institutional investors sold nearly US$16 billion worth of equity and debt as of Monday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced economic relief aimed at the poor and regulators relaxed compliance norms.

Speaking of gloomy economy, coronavirus fears and falling markets, Ajit Dayal has written an insightful piece, sharing his views in an edition of The Honest Truth.

Here's a snippet from the article:

  • Is the meltdown over?

    While the unravelling of the debt excess in the US and the developed world may have some more to play out, the question on an investor's mind in India is: Is the mayhem over and what should I do next?

    On the face of it, there is some interesting Upside Potential, or potential profit, if you were to buy the specific stocks now and assume, they get back to their past peak levels over, say, the next 2 to 3 years.

    With the help of either some jaadu mantar or some good policy.

    But there are some "bets" I would be very cautious about: Yes Bank, Reliance and the INR, for instance.

You can read his entire article here: The Market Gets a Viral Attack.

And here's some data from Apurva Sheth, editor of Breakout Profits...

Worst Quarter Ever for Sensex

Here's what Apurva wrote about the same...

  • Sensex ended first quarter of calendar year 2020 today at 29,468 down by 28.6%. This is the worst quarterly performance for the Sensex since 1992. The June quarter of 1992 ended with a cut of 28.1%. In 2008, the December quarter ended with a drop of 25%.

    We have broken all the past records and are living in an unprecedented environment. A lot could change in our lives once the crisis is over including the way you invest. Are you prepared for it?

To track such data on a daily basis and get our latest views on stock markets and more, you can join our Telegram channel here.

In another development, the government's fiscal deficit touched 135.2% of the full-year target at February-end mainly due to slower pace of revenue collections.

In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue was Rs 10,364.9 billion, the data by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed.

During February, there was hardly any impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

However, it would be very much visible when CGA releases the numbers for the entire fiscal.

The government aims to restrict the fiscal deficit at 3.8% of the GDP or Rs 7.1 trillion in 2019-20.

The deficit was 134.2% of 2018-19 Budget Estimate (BE) in the corresponding period.

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!

Read the latest Market Commentary


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