Mumbai, Feb 24 (IANS) In a rare scene, none of the Sensex and Nifty constituent stocks on Monday proved resilient enough to survive the sell-off in the Indian markets sparked by the fast-spreading coronavirus.
In a broad-based sell-off, all the constituent stocks of benchmark indices — Sensex and Nifty — ended in the red. The volatility index or the India ‘VIX’ rose by a massive 25 per cent to hit 16.99.
Concerns over global growth were clear as investors choose to distance themselves from the manufacturing company stock.
Nifty metal index crashed over 5 per cent led by massive selling in JSW Steel, Vedanta and Tata Steel which closed 6 to 8 per cent lower.
“Equity markets fell sharply today on the back of global sell off triggered by spike in coronavirus cases outside China,” said Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
Among the sectors, the auto stocks lost 3.5 per cent while the pharma stocks plunged over 3 per cent.
The Nifty banking index closed 1.58 per cent lower and the Nifty financial index slipped 1.89 per cent lower. “The banking index which is considered as a high beta index, saw some outperformance as compared to the Nifty and the damage in Bank Nifty was as severe as it generally should have been,” said Sameet Chavan, of Angel Broking.
“If Nifty has to find some support and give a bounce back, the banking stocks need to chip in heavily. On the other hand, if this basket starts correcting in the forthcoming session, then we are heading for some decent correction,” he added.
–IANS
ravi/vd