MUMBAI: Equity market once again came under heavy selling pressure on Wednesday after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the number of confirmed cases in India has risen to 28. “So far India has reported 28 positive coronavirus cases, this includes 16 Italians,” the minister said.
Reacting to this, benchmark indices tumbled around 2 percent during the day; however, they witnessed sharp recovery towards the end of the session, but still ended in the negative territory. The S&P BSE Sensex settled at 38,409, down 214 points or 0.55 percent. Of 30 stocks, 13 advanced while 17 declined.
NSE’s Nifty50 ended above 11,200 level at 11,251, down 52 points or 0.46 per cent. 28 out of 50 stocks ended in the red and rest 22 in the green. Fear gauge India VIX closed at 24.23, down over 1 percent.
Market breadth remained in favor of sellers as out of 2,534 companies traded on the BSE, 1,706 declined and 696 gained while 132 remained unchanged.
The broader market took deeper cuts. The S&P BSE MidCap index cracked 338 points or over 2 percent to 14,425 while S&P BSE SmallCap ended at 13,427, down 346.5 points or 2.5 percent.
Sectorally, pharma stocks gained the most, followed by IT counters. However, banks, metals, and media stocks slid.
Asian shares struggled to find their footing on Wednesday and bonds held stunning gains, as an emergency rate cut from the US Federal Reserve seemed to stoke rather than soothe fears over the coronavirus’s widening global economic fallout. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 percent, though most of the gains were confined to South Korea where the government announced a big stimulus package.
Japan’s Nikkei closed flat, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.7 percent. Stocks in Hong Kong and China traded either side of flat.
In commodities, oil prices firmed on expectations of production cuts, with Brent rising 90 cents to $52.79 per barrel and US crude up 1.9 percent at $48.06 a barrel. Gold rose 0.2 percent to $1642.21 an ounce. (Agencies)