MUMBAI: Indian stock markets followed global stocks which are headed for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis as the world found itself on the cusp of a pandemic. Minutes before the closing bell, the Sensex was trading nearly 1,500points lower with none of its 30 constituent stocks withstanding the carnage.
Uncertainty and panic among investors took the ‘Fear Index’ or India Vix higher by 30 percent to 22.89. The intra-day jump in ‘VIX’ was among the highest in the recent past. Relentless selling across stock markets comes as the number of coronavirus infection cases jumped even outside China, the epicenter of the outbreak. Wall Street’s benchmark index, Dow Jones Industrial Average closed (down 4 percent) with record losses on Thursday. The top losers in the Indian markets were Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra and Mahindra followed by HCL Tech and SBI. The biggest negative contributors to the decline in Sensex were Reliance Industries.
At 3.25 p.m., the Sensex was trading lower by 1,394.67 points or 3.51 percent at 38,350.99 while the broader Nifty slipped 423 points or 3.64 percent 11,210.30.
Santosh Meena, Senior Analyst, TradingBells said that the brutal fall on Dalal Street is reflecting the tension in global markets amid rising worries over the virus which has an overall toll of 2,788. The momentum of new cases in China is coming down but the number of cases outside China is rising sharply. China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index was trading 3.71 percent lower while Japan’s Topix tumbled 3.6 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plummeted over 3 percent.
Besides, the futures markets pointed at no near-term relief for the global markets. FTSE 100 Index Futures pointed at a rough start. The index was down 3.44 percent, NASDAQ 100 Future also traded lower by 1.29 percent. Equity markets are falling sharply as fear of recession is rising where investors are looking for safe-haven instruments like Yen, US bonds and Gold, Meena said. (IANS)