Crash on the cards!

Indian markets are likely to suffer another mauling as Coronavirus shutdown continues to fuel an epic stock market crash. Also, COVID-19 shows sign of gathering momentum in India. Yesterday, banks and financials were worst hit and carnage is likely to continue in banking & financial stocks with Supreme Court order on telecom companies. The theme which we suggested earlier is likely to be advisable for today’s session as well, use any bounces in the market to sell. Sentiments are showing no signs of turnaround and with the volatility on record, the market participants are now calling for a complete stock market closure. Further, we would not advice to venture for aggressive long positions as long as Nifty does not close above the prior high. SGX Nifty trades 4.34 per cent lower at 8,126 levels.  

Asian stocks were trading in red on Thursday following sell-off on Wall Street. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 3.76 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 has slipped 0.74 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 0.86 per cent.

Back home, with a positive opening, there was a ray of hope amongst market participants that the bulls will display a resilient performance but the bulls failed to extend its initial lead amid fear of global recession due to the continuous spread of COVID-19. BSE Sensex plunged 5.59 per cent and Nifty plummeted 5.56 per cent, respectively. The broader market, Nifty Mid-cap and small-cap declined 5.5 and 6 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty Media, all other indices ended in red. Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Realty were the top losers.  

In overnight developments, US stock market continued their free-fall and it was Dow that had performed the worst. Circuit breaker was triggered midday to where stock trading halted for 15-mintue period. Also, the stock market has erased all its gains under President Donald Trump. At the end, Dow closed 6.3 per cent lower, S&P fell 5.2 per cent and Nasdaq plunged 4.7 per cent. The carnage in European markets showed no signs of relenting despite stimulus announcements from governments.