Sensex Falls Over 200 Points, Nifty Slips Below 9,100 Amid Choppy Trade

At 9:23 am, the Sensex traded 198.03 points - or 0.64 per cent - lower at 30,899.70 while the Nifty was down 62.90 points - or 0.69 per cent - at 9,073.95, as losses in banking and financial services stocks dragged the markets. In the Nifty basket of 50 components, 38 shares moved lower at the time. Top percentage losers were Coal India, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank and SBI, trading between 2.64 per cent and 4.48 per cent lower. On the other hand, Cipla, Bharti Infratel, Infosys, Reliance Industries and ITC - up between 0.76 per cent and 1.98 per cent each - were the top Nifty gainers. ICICI Bank (down 3.92 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.49 per cent) and HDFC (1.18 per cent) alone accounted for a fall of more than 150 points in the Sensex. On Sunday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the fifth and last set of measures under the government's "Atma Nirbhar Bharat" package to shield the economy against the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown which began on March 25. The Finance Minister said the stimulus measures brought in by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) added up to Rs 20.97 lakh crore. In the fifth tranche of measures, Ms Sitharaman announced privatisation of state-run companies in non-strategic sectors and suspension of new insolvency cases for a year. The government has been trying to divest parts of state-run companies in sectors ranging from aviation to power to fill its coffers, but it has confronted weak investor sentiment and limited demand. The Finance Minister also raised the borrowing limits for state governments to 5 per cent of their GDP or gross domestic product, from 3 per cent. The Union government will allow states to raise an additional Rs 4.28 lakh crore in the current financial year, she said. Equities elsewhere in Asia traded higher, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan last seen up 0.20 per cent. Japan's Nikkei 225, China's Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI benchmark indices were up 0.44 per cent, 0.39 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 0.24 per cent respectively at the time. The E-Mini S&P 500 futures were up 1.15 per cent in early Asian trade, indicating a strong opening for Wall Street later in the day. On Friday, the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite indices had closed 0.39 per cent, 0.25 per cent and 0.79 per cent higher respectively. Earlier that day, the S&P BSE Sensex index had ended 25.16 points - or 0.08 per cent - lower at 31,097.73 and the broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark at 9,136.85, down 5.90 points or 0.06 per cent compared to the previous close, as the markets only managed to trim losses in a weak session.

Sensex Falls Over 200 Points, Nifty Slips Below 9,100 Amid Choppy Trade

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