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Black Friday for Indian markets as Sensex tanks over 1400 points; worst loss in 5 years

Last Updated 28 February 2020, 17:28 IST

Indian equity market witnessed a bloodbath on Friday as shares across the sectors tumbled amid global financial meltdown resulting from fears of Coronavirus becoming a global pandemic.

The benchmark indices marked their worst losses in about five years, which also happens to be the second-biggest loss marked by Indian Indices ever.

The benchmark indices, on a day which witnessed billions worth of value being wiped off from the Indian markets closed with losses of over 3.6% in a single day.

The 30-share index of BSE -- Sensex -- closed at 38,297.29 down 1,448.37 points (3.64%) -- dragging the markets to pre-September levels.

Except for ITC shares, all the bluechip shares in Indian exchanges ended in deep red – led by Tech Mahindra (losing 8.14%), Tata Steel (7.57%) and HCL (6.25%).

During the day, more than Rs 5.53 lakh crore of the investor wealth was wiped off.

The overall market breadth was also highly negative with only 18% of the listed companies showing advances. The BSE witnessed 456 advances as against 2,011 declines.

Similarly, broader index NSE Nifty closed with losses of 414 points (3.6%) at 11,219.

Top 5 falls

Date Fall
24-Aug-15 -1,625
28-Feb-20 1,448
21-Jan-08 -1,408
24-Oct-08 -1,071
1-Feb-20 987

Globally, all the major indices are trading in deep red as coronavirus poses the threat of the global pandemic -- with some exchanges even crashing by 5%.

Meanwhile, S&P 500 -- that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States -- has witnessed the biggest correction ever in history, correcting by 10% in the past one week.

“The BSE-30 Index declined 6.5% in the current week. Global markets fell even more with Dow Jones and Nasdaq falling 11%, one of the sharpest cuts in several years. Markets feared the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 across the geographies and the consequent economic fallout,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, VP PCG Research, Kotak Securities.

The world economy is anticipating a severe hit from Coronavirus, as Hubei -- one of China’s most economically important provinces -- faces lockdown.

It is estimated that 22 million businesses or close to 90% of all active businesses in China are located in the most impacted regions. Additionally, as China’s share in global GDP increased four-times and rose from 4% in 2002 to 16% in 2018, the outbreak might cause a drag of approximately one percentage point on global GDP growth.

As foreign investors re-allocated their money towards gold, the rupee also depreciated by 59 paise and was closed at 72.20 against the US dollar.

The crude oil prices also fell for the sixth consecutive day, marking the biggest weekly loss in more than four years -- of about 12%.

The Brent futures at trading at more than three-year low of $50.42 a barrel (down 2.5%) – the lowest since December 2016.

Meanwhile, Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow 30) continued its crash for second consecutive day. The Index was trading at 24,877.34, down 889.30 points (3.45%) on Friday, at the time of filing this copy.

This tops up Thurday's drop of 1,191 points, or 4.4% in its worst one-day point drop in history.

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(Published 28 February 2020, 10:21 IST)

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