Mumbai: Amid fears of an outbreak of a deadly virus Coronavirus in China, the Sensex on Monday (January 27) closed 458.07 points down or 1.10% at 41,155.12, and the broader Nifty ended down 129.30 points or 1.06% at 12,119. Major gainers on the Nifty were Dr Reddy’s Labs, M&M, Cipla, UltraTech Cement and Eicher Motors, while Vedanta, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco and IndusInd Bank were among major losers.
As many as 1052 shares advanced, 1452 shares declined, while 165 shares remained unchanged.
In the afternoon trade, benchmark indices traded at day's low level with Nifty slipping below 12,150, down 110.90 points or 0.91%. The Sensex was also down 375.13 points or 0.90% at 41238.06. About 1013 shares advanced, 1305 shares declined, and 134 shares remain unchanged.
During early hours on Monday, equity benchmark indices slipped as investors globally were increasingly anxious about the economic impact of China`s new coronavirus. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 113 points to 41,500 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 48 points at 12,200.
Most of the sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain with Nifty metal dipping by 2.23 per cent and PSU bank by 0.91 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asian markets tumbled as China announced sharp increases in the number of people affected in an outbreak of a potentially deadly virus. Many regional markets, including China's, were closed in Asia for Lunar New Year holidays. Australia was closed for Australia Day.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index sank 1.8 per cent to 23,389.49. India's Sensex lost 0.4 per cent to 41,466.45, while the benchmark in Thailand dropped 2.2 per cent. Indonesia's share benchmark was 0.8 per cent lower.
China announced it was extending its week-long public holiday by an extra three days as a precaution against having the virus spread still further.
On Friday, the S&P 500 had its worst day since early October, dropping 0.9 per cent as health care stocks saw steep losses. The sell-off followed news that a Chicago woman had become the second US patient diagnosed with the new virus from China.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.9 per cent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.64 per cent from 1.74 per cent Thursday.
Next week is shaping up as the busiest week for earnings reports, with roughly 40 per cent of the companies in the S&P 500 due to issue their results for the last three months of 2019.
Benchmark US crude gave up USD 1.25 to USD 52.94 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost USD 1.40 to USD 54.19 per barrel on Friday.
Brent crude, the international standard, declined $1.35 to USD 58.54 per barrel. It shed USD 1.39 to USD 59.89 per barrel on Friday.
In currency trading, the dollar weakened to 109.07 Japanese yen from 109.28 yen. The euro strengthened to USD 1.1029 from USD 1.1025.
(With Agency Inputs)
