Sensex down 173.25 points, Nifty settles at 8748.75; Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Cipla major gainers

New Delhi: Indian stock markets on Wednesday (April 8) closed on a lower side after witnessing volatility with the Sensex ending 173.25 points down or 0.58% at 29893.96, while the Nifty was down 43.45 points or 0.49% at 8748.75. Major gainers on the Nifty were Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Cipla, NTPC and Bharti Infratel, while the top laggards were Shree Cements, Titan Company, TCS, and Hindalco.

Prior to closure at 3 pm, the Sensex was trading with 61.42 points down or 0.20% at 30005.79, while the broader Nifty was also down 12.60 points or 0.14% at 8779.60. 

The Indian rupee also settled 70 paise lower at 76.34 (provisional) against the US dollar today amid the rise in coronavirus cases in the country and weak domestic equities. 

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened weak at 75.83, then lost further ground and finally settled for the day at 76.34, registering a fall of 70 paise over its previous close. On Tuesday, the rupee had settled at 75.64 against the US dollar.

Domestic bourses were trading on a negative note on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex was trading 177.93 points lower at 29,889.28 and Nifty down by 73 points at 8,719.20.

During early hours today, equity benchmark indices were in the positive zone amid uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. At 10:15 am, the BSE Sensex was up by 524 points at 30,592 while the broader Nifty 50 ticked up by 153 points at 8,945. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty pharma up by 4.9 per cent, auto by 3.8 per cent, FMCG by 3 per cent and realty by 2.9 per cent.

Among stocks, GAIL jumped by 9 per cent to Rs 92.25 per share while pharma majors Cipla and Sun Pharma gained by 5.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Lever added gains of over 6 per cent. HDFC, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti too traded with a positive bias. However, ITC, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel were in the red.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks stepped back after two sessions of sharp gains as investors remained cautious about the coronavirus while death tolls were still mounting across the globe. Though the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations seemed to be levelling off in New York state, deaths across the United States jumped by a record 1,800.

Mainland China`s new coronavirus cases also doubled in 24 hours due to infected overseas travellers. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan lost by 0.7 per cent but Japan`s Nikkei added 0.4 per cent while Shanghai blue chips lost by 0.6 per cent. 

World stocks turned negative on Wednesday as the coronavirus death toll mounted and euro zone finance minister failed to agree a rescue package to help economies recover from the impact of the outbreak. After two sessions of gains, European equities fell amid renewed concern about the spread of the virus and the continent`s response to it.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped 0.7%. London`s FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, as the country`s coronavirus death toll crossed 6,100. Germany`s DAX shed 0.8% after rallying more than 8% in the past two days, as the number of confirmed cases rose for a second straight day.

Japanese shares were boosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe`s ending market uncertainty by declaring an emergency, helping the Nikkei share average close 2.13% higher. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.5%.

Meanwhile, investor sentiment was helped by a bounce in oil prices, with Brent crude adding 0.8% to $32.08 per barrel after falling 3.6% on Tuesday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 3.8% to $24.45 a barrel. They were lifted on hopes that a meeting between OPEC members and allied producers on Thursday would trigger output cuts to shore up prices.

After US stock markets closed on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the United States may be getting to the top of the coronavirus curve. The Trump administration asked Congress for an additional $250 billion in emergency economic aid for small US businesses reeling from the pandemic.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar edged up 0.25% to 100.210. The euro fell 0.4% to $1.0852. The Aussie dollar fell 0.5% to $0.6137 after ratings agency S&P downgraded the outlook on its sovereign AAA rating from stable to negative and warned the cost of combating the virus would weigh on the country`s finances.

(With Agency Inputs)