The benchmark indices ended marginally lower with Nifty failed to hold above 11,850. While, TCS, State Bank of India and Tata Steel were the top gainers while Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Indiabulls Housing Finance were the most active stocks.
Global stock markets stabilised on Tuesday after a wave of early selling petered out and Wall Street futures managed a solid bounce after the previous day’s sharp selloff on fears about the spreading coronavirus. MSCI’s All Country World index, which tracks shares across 47 countries, was down 0.16 per cent, paring some earlier losses when Asian markets were trading. The index suffered its biggest daily drop in two years on Monday.
Whereas, European stocks opened on a positive note Tuesday after suffering their biggest slump since mid-2016 the previous day on worries about the coronavirus outbreak that has spread far beyond China to Europe and the Middle East.
On the other side oil steadied after shedding nearly 4 per cent on Monday. US crude was up 0.2 per cent at $51.55, while Brent crude firmed 0.4 per cent to $56.51.
Among sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma index dropped over 2 per cent to end as the biggest sectoral index loser. The index closed at 7,937 levels. On the other hand, realty and IT stocks made decent gains.
On the corporate front, shares of Linde India fell 7 percent after company reported a sharp fall in revenue, though operating income and margin remained strong. While, shares of IRB Infrastructure Developers gained 9 percent after IRB Infrastructure Trust received first tranche of investment from GIC affiliates.
The 30-share benchmark ended at 40281.2 down by - 82.03 points or by -0.2 per cent, while the NSE Nifty was at 11797.9 down by -31.5 points or by -0.27 per cent. During the day’s trade, Sensex touched intraday high of 40536 and intraday low of 40220.59 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 11883.05 and intraday low of 11779.9.
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2158.30,+1.98%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 421.35,+1.44%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 536.25,+1.22%), State Bank of India (Rs. 326.60,+1.15%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2232.40,+0.74%), among others.
The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 388.60,-2.37%), HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 582.65,-2.10%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1416.30,-1.98%), IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1153.90,-1.42%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (Rs. 1242.40,-1.36%), among others.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2870 , shares advanced were 1085 while 1575 shares declined and 210 were unchanged.