Indian equities opened with deep cuts in sync with losses in other Asian peers as the spread of the coronavirus outside China darkened the outlook for world growth with infections and deaths rising in South Korea, Italy and the Middle East.
Indian equities were trading with over half a per cent cut on Wednesday after a massive sell-off overnight on the Wall Street amid concerns over the Covid-19 spreading beyond China. All the Nifty sectoral indices except Nifty FMCG index were in the red. Nifty Metal and Nifty Auto indexes, both down 0.8 per cent each, bled the most.
Asian markets are deep in the red this morning and the dollar slipped while gold headed back towards a more-than seven-year high hit earlier this week. While, the Indian rupee opened higher by 13 paise at 71.75 per dollar on Wednesday versus previous close of 71.88.
On the corporate front, Cipla share price fell over 5 percent on February 26 after company received a warning letter from USFDA for its Goa manufacturing facility. Whereas, Bandhan Bank gains 4% after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the regulatory restriction on branch opening, subject to the condition that the Bank ensures that at least 25 per cent of the total number of Banking Outlets opened during a financial year are opened in unbanked rural centres.
At 9:33 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 40048.16 down by -233.04 points or by -0.58 %, and the NSE Nifty was at 11731.25 down by -66.65 points or by -0.56 %.
On the sectoral front, IT index was at 16465.01 up by 84.67 points or by 0.52%. Zen Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 59.00,+2.25%), Cigniti Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 272.25,+1.93%), Tanla Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 78.70,+1.55%), Datamatics Global Services Ltd. (Rs. 65.25,+1.24%), Accelya Solutions India Ltd. (Rs. 1073.20,+0.68%),.
Among others, Realty index was at 2272.31 down by -22.71 points or by -0.99%. Sunteck Realty Ltd. (Rs. 363.20,-1.77%), Oberoi Realty Ltd. (Rs. 511.30,-1.64%), Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (Rs. 335.00,-1.59%), Sobha Ltd. (Rs. 319.55,-1.22%), Godrej Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1091.25,-0.94%),.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 1344 , shares advanced were 460 while 838 shares declined and 46 were unchanged.