Sensex Falls Over 750 Points From Day's High, Nifty Below 8,550

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes came off intraday highs as the relief package announced by the government failed to enthuse investors, analysts said. The Sensex fell over 700 points from the day's highest level and Nifty slipped below the important psychological level of 8,550. Earlier in the day, Sensex had rallied 1,564 points and the Nifty 50 index surpassed 8,700 mark on hopes of stimulus package for industrial sectors impacted by the ongoing lockdown, which is aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus.

As of 2:25 pm, the Sensex traded 760 points or 2.66 per cent higher at 29,296 and the NSE Nifty 50 index was up 2.6 per cent or 218 points at 8,535.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the economically weaker sections to tide over the added challenge of lockdown and job loss arising from the coronavirus outbreak.

The package included direct benefit transfers to the poor, medical insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh for health workers, Rs 500 per month transfer to women Jan Dhan account holders for the next three months and additional 5 kg of rice or wheat for the next three months.

Analysts said the economic package announced by the government lacked stimulus measures for industrial sectors, thus leading to some correction in the benchmark indices.

All the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Private Bank index's 7 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, IT and Realty sector gauges gained 2-6 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose over 3 per cent each.

IndusInd Bank was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares; the stock surged 37 per cent to Rs 413. Bharti Infratel, Axis Bank, UPL, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp and ITC also rose between 5-10 per cent each.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Ports, GAIL India, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma were among the losers.