Sensex, Nifty Log Second Worst Day Since March 2020 Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis
Catch all live updates on share prices, index moves, corporate announcements and more from the Sensex and Nifty, today.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Closing Bell
India's stock benchmarks logged their second worst day since March 2020, the month when the country imposed Covid restrictions, due to escalation of geopolitical crisis in Ukraine.
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 tumbled nearly 5% after Russia launched a barrage of missile, air and artillery attacks on Ukraine, starting from the eastern separatist-led regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Today's decline marked the seventh consecutive session in which the Sensex and Nifty closed with losses. This is the longest losing streak for the two measures since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The last time, Sensex and Nifty fell for seven consecutive sessions was on Feb. 2020.
Over the past seven sessions, the Sensex lost over 3,600 points. Both the gauges shed over 6% since Feb. 16.
Today, Sensex fell 4.72% to 54,529.91. The NSE Nifty 50 also closed with losses of similar magnitude at 16,247.95. The move was the biggest since falling 5.7% on May 4, 2020. Tata Motors Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 10.3%. Today, all 50 shares fell.
The broader indices underperformed their larger peers with both the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap losing over 5.5%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Realty falling 7.27% and S&P BSE Telecom and S&P BSE Auto tumbling over 6%.
The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bears. About 232 stocks advanced, 3,160 declined and 86 remained unchanged.
"Nifty has broken significant support level 16,600 and witnessed significant selling pressure in line with global markets. We believe volatility will remain elevated on account of an external shock and expect March series to witness further negative bias", Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research - Derivatives at Kotak Securities wrote in a note. "Though the bias is negative, We await derivatives data to establish objective levels before taking a strong positional stance from here on. Investors can use further deep corrections to buy/average and traders to define risk in uncertain times".
'Russia-Ukraine Crisis Is The Biggest Near-Term Worry For Markets'
The biggest near-term worry for Indian markets is Russia-Ukraine crisis. First worry, I would say is Russia, Second is impact due to the upcoming U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike, Third worry is LIC IPO, which will pull out some money and the fourth major worry is state assembly elections. We have been seeing the impact due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis over the past week. Indian markets could possibly fall almost 10% from the current level.Mehraboon Irani, Market Expert (In an interview to BloombergQuint on Feb. 17)
Latest Updates From The Russia-Ukraine Crisis
Why The Russia-Ukraine Crisis Matters To India & The World
No Concern Over Oil Supply, But Prices Remain A Worry, Oil Ministry Official
No concern over oil supply, but prices remain a worry, an official from Oil Ministry told reporters.
India is in constant discussions with U.S., others over oil prices.
India is closely monitoring Russia-Ukraine situation
Source: Bloomberg
