For the sixth straight session, the equity indices finished lower on Thursday with the benchmark BSE Sensex falling by more than 1,100 points dragged by banking, IT and metal stocks as fears of fresh restrictions of the pandemic has made the domestic investors jittery and one can see a heavy global selloff in the stocks.
The BSE index for 30 shares finished at 1,115 points at 36,554 and is lowered by 2.96 percent. However, the much broader NSE nifty ended up at 326 points which is at 2.93 percent, and settled at 10,806.
The top losers have been Tata Steel, TCS, Tech Mahindra, M&M, and IndusInd Bank as the Sensex pack fell by 7.1 percent. All stocks finished in red except for Hindustan Unilever.
In the NSE, all the sub-indices finished in losses that have been dragged by Auto, Metal, Nifty IT and the PSU bank have fallen up to 4.24 percent.
There have been major reasons for the slump and one of them is weak global cues. On Thursday, all across the emerging economies of Asia, the stock markets sank as there have been rising concerns about cases for coronavirus in the developed world and hammered the risk appetite of investors. It has also driven the capital into the dollar and other safe havens that are traditional.
The tone has been set up by an overnight drop in the Wall Street and in the Strait time Index of Singapore as it was caught up in the entire action and as early falls lost almost 1% in China and it had sparked the losses across the region of as much as 2.5%.
One of the major reasons is also the surge in Covid-19 cases. In many countries like Netherlands, Canada, France, Spain, and the UK there has been a resurgence of Covid-19 cases nad fears of fresh lockdowns have spike up and it has made the investors jittery.
The caseload of Covid-19 in India has mounted to a staggering 57,32,518 and as many as 86,508 people have tested positive in a day. The death toll in the country has climbed up to 91,149 as in 24 hours 1,129 have succumbed to the disease. The data by the home ministry has been updated on Thursday at 8 am. Out of the European countries who have acted, France has become the latest of them as restaurants and bars are shut down in Marseille, the second biggest city in the country. The city has been put on maximum alert and there have been restrictions in parts of Paris. New limitations and restrictions are expected in public gatherings and there could be early closing hours.
The opening hours are also shortened by the British Government and other measures could be taken if needed.
The crisis has led to a situation of economic uncertainty and it has been lasting longer than it was expected. Some countries will require years to get back to growth.
