oppn parties Stock Markets In A Free Fall, Sensex Loses 1600 Points

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
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Stock Markets In A Free Fall, Sensex Loses 1600 Points

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2020-03-09 12:55:44

The twin issues of the rapid spread of coronavirus (and the consequent disruption in business) along with the uncertainty over the future of Yes Bank spooked the stock market big time today with the indices going into a free fall. The Sensex has gone down by over 1600 points intra-day while the Nifty slid by 453 points. The mood is one of despondency as many counters have only sellers.

The Indian markets took their cue from the global bourses. Stock markets the world over were down by anything from 3 to 5 percent as the already slowing world economy was expected to suffer a prolonged downturn due to the travelling bans and shipment rescheduling as a result of the coronavirus scare. As more and more positive cases of the disease come to fore across the globe, business productivity is expected to plunge sharply, leading to companies reporting lower profits or even losses. This has eroded customer confidence.

Closer home, despite assurances from the RBI and the interest shown by the SBI and other investors to seriously take up the rebuilding of the troubled Yes Bank, investor confidence is shaken. The markets were already discounting the continuing slowdown in the economy when the coronavirus scare struck. Now the Yes Bank episode has taken the winds totally out of the bulls' sails. Even the report that Brent crude has tumbled to below $40 a barrel and is expected to touch $30 within a short period has failed to improve sentiments. Foreign investors are selling in a big way and the Indian institutions have not been able to pick up all they are selling.

Equities are expected to be under selling pressure in the coming weeks. Investors would be advised not to go long yet. But if the markets continue to slide, there may come a time in a couple of weeks when some stocks will be available at a price too attractive to ignore. That would be the right time for any long term player to make his or her move.