Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure during closing hours today, tracking weakness in global markets owing to coronavirus outbreak.
While Indian share markets opened on a negative note today, losses were recovered thereafter as investors banked on hopes of more government stimulus and lockdowns to combat the virus spread.
The gains were again wiped out amid panic selling as coronavirus fears mounted.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 173 points, while the NSE Nifty closed down by 43 points.
The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 1.9%.
Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the IT sector and realty sector witnessing selling pressure, while healthcare stocks witnessed buying interest.
Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 1.2% while the Nikkei was up 2.1%.
European share markets opened in red, following bearish trend from US and Asian markets, amid the coronavirus led uncertainty.
Both, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 declined over 1.5%, followed by 1.3% decline in DAX.
The coronavirus impact has shaken markets worldwide. Indian stock markets have felt the full impact too.
For the BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.
Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.
Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?
History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets.
In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.
If you can find good businesses that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.
Moving on, the rupee was trading at 76.30 against the US$.
Gold prices are currently trading down by 0.4% at Rs 44,920.
Gold prices eased today after rallying for three days, tracking a decline in global rates.
In global markets, prices eased today after hitting a new one-month high in the previous session. A stronger dollar and signs of a slowdown in the new coronavirus cases in major hot spots hurt the metal's safe-haven appeal.
In news from the automobile sector, India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has lowered production by 32% in March. The auto major said that it produced a total of 92,540 units in March as against 136,201 units in the year-ago period.
Passenger vehicle production stood at 91,602 units as against 135,236 units in March 2019, a dip of 32.3%.
Production of mini and compact segment cars, including Alto, S-Presso WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire stood at 67,708 units as against 98,602 units in March last year, down 31.3%.
Production of utility vehicles such as Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross declined by 14.2% to 15,203 units as compared to 17,719 units a year ago.
In February, the automaker had cut its production by 5.4% to 1,40,933 units.
Maruti Suzuki share price ended the day up by 3.3%.
Moving on, in latest developments from the IPO space, Ahmedabad-based Laxmi Goldorna's initial public offer (IPO) received an enthusiastic response from investors amid challenging market conditions with the issue getting subscribed by 1.15 times in NSE EMERGE platform.
The issue managed to garner bids worth Rs 95.2 million against the issue size of Rs 82.8 million.
The IPO of Laxmi Goldorna, which is in the business of gold jewellery and affordable housing, closed on Friday.
According to reports, the company would be listed on NSE EMERGE after the lock-down is eased.
In other news, Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) Managing Director Vipin Anand said he does not see any major shift in the insurer's IPO plan following the virus outbreak.
He said that the IPO in any case is a time-consuming thing, which is going to be there, adding that the progress will entirely depend on when LIC resumes operations full-time.
Anand said that LIC has over Rs 33 lakh crore of assets at this point in time, which is one of its biggest advantages.
Earlier this week, reports stated that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to dent the valuation of LIC and may adversely impact the proposed stake sale.
The report further added that the main concern is regarding the unusual spike in death claims due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which along with moratorium on premium payments is likely to put a strain on the insurer's financials.
The LIC IPO, tipped to be the largest IPO in the country ever, was proposed in the Budget for 2020-21.
According to initial estimates, the government had pegged the valuation of a 10% stake sale in LIC at around Rs 600-800 billion.
However, there has been a significant downward revision in those figures due to the coronavirus outbreak. Reportedly, this amount can be lower by as much as 40-50%.
The coronavirus outbreak has led to a lot of uncertainty in capital markets across the globe with economic activity in various countries coming to a near halt due to lockdowns.
Share markets have crashed across the world on concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on economies.
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