Sensex gains 1,325.34 points, Nifty settles at 10023.70; SBI, Tata Steel, HDFC top gainers

New Delhi: BSE Sensex closes with gains of 1,325.34 points or 4.04 percent at 34103.48, while the broader Nifty surged 433.55 points or 4.52 percent at 10023.70. Top gainer stocks were State Bank of India (SBI), Tata Steel and HDFC, while SBI and HDFC Bank remain the most active shares.

At 3:08 PM, Sensex was trading 1,203.65 points up or 3.67 percent at 33981.79, while the Nifty jumped 337.65 points or 3.52 percent at 9927.80. Equity benchmark indices staged the biggest ever intra-day recovery today afternoon after hitting a 10 per cent lower circuit.

At 1:15 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 34,343 levels, up 1,564 points or 4.77 per cent. Earlier, the index hit the intra-day low of 29,388. The Nifty 50 was up by 432 points or 4.5 per cent at 10,022.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) stepped in quickly after the early morning rout and said the fall in Indian indices has been significantly lower than the stock market in other countries.

"SEBI and stock exchanges have a robust risk management framework in place which automatically gets triggered in response to movements in the indices (BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty) as well as individual stocks both in cash and derivatives market," it said in a statement.

Over the last few days, said SEBI, the Indian stock market has been moving in tandem with other global markets owing to concerns relating to COVID-19 pandemic, resultant fear of economic slowdown and recent fall in global crude prices.

Around noon, Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian said the current developments in stock market are related to global factors and do not reflect strong fundamentals of the Indian economy.All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange turned green with Nifty PSU bank gaining by over 11 per cent, pharma by 7 per cent, financial service by 5.8 per cent and metal by 4.4 per cent.

Among stocks, State Bank of India (SBI) surged ahead by 16.3 per cent to Rs 247.25 per share while Sun Pharma and Bharat Petroleum Corporation edged up by 13 per cent each.The other prominent gainers were Grasim, HDFC. Cipla, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and Maruti.

During early hours on Friday, investors remained nervous as equity indices crashed by 10 per cent but recovered quickly after the trading was halted for 45 minutes as the Nifty hit a lower circuit. At 11:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was still down by 84 points or 0.26 per cent to 32,693 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 66 points at 9,524.The trading was halted for the 45 minutes as the Nifty hit a 10 per cent lower circuit.

At 10 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 3,091 points or 9.43 per cent to 29,688 while the Nifty 50 cracked by 966 points or 10.07 per cent to 8,624. The trading was halted for the 45 minutes as the Nifty hit a 10 per cent lower circuit. 

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were floating in red with Nifty IT down by 13.15 per cent, PSU bank by 12.96 per cent, metal by 11.83 per cent and auto by 11.38 per cent. Among stocks, Kotak Mahindra Bank was the top loser after dropping by over 20 per cent at Rs 1,172.05 per share. Bharat Petroleum Corporation slipped by 16.7 per cent, GAIL by 15.3 per cent and ONGC by 14 per cent.

IT majors HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services suffered losses of 15.8 per cent, 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. The other prominent losers were IndusInd Bank and Adani Ports.

Meanwhile, global stock markets crashed with coronavirus panic selling hitting almost every asset class. Gold and oil fell and once-safe sovereign bonds slumped as investors liquidated everything they could to cover losses.

Japan`s Nikkei dropped as far as 10 per cent and headed for its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. In South Korea, the Kospi fell by 7.7 per cent while Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index was down by 5 per cent and China`s Shanghai composite slumped by 3 per cent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 2,353 lower at 21,201, the S&P 500 tanked 9.5 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite ended 9.4 per cent lower at 7,202.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared coronavirus a global pandemic and US President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from Europe to the United States over COVID-19.

(With Agency Inputs)