Sensex Ends 310 Points Lower; Banking and Finance Stocks Witness Selling

Wed, 15 Apr Closing

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After opening the day on a strong note, Indian share markets witnessed negative trading activity during closing hours and ended their trading session lower.

Benchmarks indices erased early gains and turned bearish by the afternoon session, in line with global trend.

Moreover, concerns over the rise in Covid-19 cases across the nation and worldwide kept domestic investors cautious.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the banking sector, finance sector and energy sector witnessing most of the selling pressure, while FMCG stocks witnessed buying interest.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 310 points and the NSE Nifty closed down by 69 points.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 1.3% and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 1.2%.

Asian stock markets finished on a negative note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 1.4% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.6%. The Nikkei 225 was down 0.5%.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, stock markets around the world witnessed one of the most painful correction phases in the month of March 2020.

Indian stock markets too mirrored the trend. In the month of March 2020, the Sensex fell as much as 23%.

It is not the month where the market has fallen the most. That honor goes to October 2008 where markets tanked 23.9%, beating the 23.1% the market lost last month by a whisker.

However, March 2020 wins hands down in wealth destruction.

Wealth destruction of Rs 4.4 lakh crores back in 2008 pales in comparison to the Rs 14.6 lakh crores worth of wealth destroyed on the Sensex in the last month alone.

March 2020 the Second Worst Month in History

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Moving on, the rupee is trading at 76.44 against the US$.

The domestic currency pared early gains and settled 17 paise lower at fresh record low of 76.44 against the US dollar.

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to haunt the global financial markets, the rupee has been hit badly.

In a recent article titled The Sharp Fall in Indian Rupee: 6 Points to Know, we dive deeper and look at the factors behind rupee's depreciation.

Gold prices are currently trading up by 0.3% at Rs 46,435.

Domestic gold prices touched new highs today, crossing the Rs 46,700 level per 10 gram in futures market.

On Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), June gold futures rose as much as 1% to a new high of Rs 46,785 per 10 gram.

In the previous session, prices had surged over 2% to Rs 46,255 per 10 gram, hitting a new high of Rs 46,385 during the session.

Tracking gold, silver prices also rose 1.4% to Rs 44,350 per kg.

In global markets, gold prices traded near seven-year highs. At the time of writing, Spot gold was trading at US$ 1,727.59 per ounce.

Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) continued their uptrend. The holdings SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.8% to 1,017.59 tonnes on Tuesday.

Speaking of gold, in his latest video, Vijay Bhambwani explains why the bull market in gold may get bumpy going ahead.

You can check the same here: A Timely Warning About Gold

In news from the mutual funds space, mutual funds (MFs) stuck to safety of index heavyweights in the month of March 2020. According to data collated by Edelweiss, Reliance Industries was on top of mutual funds' buying list, with fund managers pumping in Rs 42.4 billion in the stock.

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank were among other stocks that were on top of MFs buying list, with fund managers infusing Rs 21.8 billion, Rs 21.7 billion and Rs 21.1 billion in the private lenders, respectively.

They also infused Rs 18.1 billion in TCS and Rs 16.9 billion in HDFC.

On the other hand, MFs reduced exposure to Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, and GMR Infra. Among other stocks, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel also saw MF exposure declining by Rs 1.9 billion each.

Moving on to news from the pharma sector, Lupin share price was in focus today.

Stock of the company witnessed buying interest today after its Mandideep Unit II facility received Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US health regulator.

The company informed exchanges that it received EIR report after the closure of the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) inspection of its Mandideep Unit II facility, classifying the inspection as Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI).

Earlier this month, the drug major said its Aurangabad facility received EIR report from the USFDA.

However, shares of the company pared all its gains and ended 1% lower.

Speaking of the pharma sector, in December 2019, co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee had predicted that pharma could be the sector to see a big rebound in 2020.

And rightly so, most pharma companies have re-emerged as the safer bets for investors in the ongoing market turmoil. The Indian rupee touched a new record low of Rs 76.55 against the US dollar last week. Most pharma companies generate their revenues through exports. Hence, a depreciating rupee is a positive development for them.

As per Tanushree, in a post Covid-19 world, healthcare expenditures globally will see a big rejig.

The world needs affordable medicines in large quantities. Very few can supply them in the quantity and cost that Indian drug makers can. Yet, most Indian pharma stocks are trading at historically low valuations.

Tanushree is recommending her subscribers, to buy stocks selectively, a few at a time, by taking partial exposures to begin with.

She has already recommended 4 safe bluechips in the past month and there are several more in her watchlist. You can access them here: Here's How You Could Trade the Coronavirus Crisis Safely (requires subscription).

And if you are not a StockSelect subscriber, here's where you sign up.

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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