Stock Market: Sensex, Nifty settled low

This week the stock market indices ended in loss. According to market experts, this loss occurs due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the negative trend of the international equity market is the reason for the negative trend of the Indian share market. Global shares traded lower as the virus claimed over 900 lives in China’s central Hubei province as of Sunday, a death toll that has exceeded that of the SARS epidemic two decades ago.

Meanwhile, Beijing lifted some work and travel curbs, offering some reprieve to financial markets. The BSE Sensex settled trading at 40,979 registering a loss of 162 points or 0.39%. The NSE Nifty ended trading at 12,031 lower by 66 points or 0.55%.

This time the top gainers in the market were Bajaj Finance, Kotak Bank, Tata Consultancy Service, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, UPL, and HDFC. And The top losers in the market were Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, ONGC, Sun Pharma, Bharati Infratel, Eicher Motors, Coal India, Hindalco, YES Bank, Britannia Industries, Vedanta and Hero MotoCorp. The overall market breadth was negative as 1551 shares closed lower while 986 shares ended higher.

In the domestic market, metal stocks were the top drags, with the Nifty metals index shedding over 3%. Zee Entertainment dropped 7.73% and was the top laggard, while UPL Ltd was the top gainer on the Nifty, rising 5.71%. In the previous session, Sensex closed 164.18 points or 0.40 percent lower at 41,141.85, and the Nifty settled at 12,098.35, down by 39.60 points or 0.33 percent.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 161.93 crore, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 178.59 crore on Friday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

Mahindra was the top loser in the Sensex pack plummetting up to 5.20%. Tata Steel, ONGC, Sun Pharma, NTPC, IndusInd Bank and Titan were also in the red. On the other hand, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC were in gain.