India News | Markets Slump as RIL, HDFC Bank Succumb to Profit-booking; Fed Decision in Focus
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Equity benchmarks took a knock on Wednesday as profit-booking emerged in recent outperformers Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank amid a cautious trend in overseas markets.
Mumbai, Jul 29 (PTI) Equity benchmarks took a knock on Wednesday as profit-booking emerged in recent outperformers Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank amid a cautious trend in overseas markets.
The BSE Sensex ended 421.82 points or 1.10 per cent lower at 38,071.13, while the NSE Nifty tumbled 97.70 points or 0.86 per cent to 11,202.85.
Reliance Industries was the top loser in the Sensex pack, dropping 3.75 per cent, followed by Nestle India, HCL Tech, M&M, HDFC Bank, Maruti and Tech Mahindra.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday reported its first ever quarterly loss since going public 17 years back, with a consolidated net loss of Rs 268.3 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
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On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, UltratEch Cement and L&T were among the gainers, spurting up to 4.54 per cent.
According to traders, besides stock-specific profit booking, domestic market participants were also cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy outcome.
Concerns over the rising number of COVID-19 cases too spooked investors after India's tally went past 15 lakh on Wednesday, two days after it crossed the 14-lakh mark, with 48,513 fresh cases recorded in a day.
"Indian indices gave up gains and closed in the negative with profit booking seen in the recent outperformer RIL. Global markets were generally undecided ahead of the US Fed Reserve meeting and mixed earnings reports in addition to rising virus cases forcing economies to reconsider restrictions to contain the spread.
"Stock specific action was also visible, post earnings...and this trend is expected to continue. Adequate liquidity in the market should ensure that these corrections are bought into," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
BSE energy, auto, oil and gas, IT, consumer durables and teck indices fell up to 3.04 per cent, while healthcare, metal, basic materials and telecom closed with gains.
Broader BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices bucked the market trend to end 0.68 per cent higher.
Global markets were mixed as investors awaited the US Fed's policy decision.
Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul ended higher, while Tokyo settled in the red.
Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a mixed note in early deals.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.28 per cent higher at USD 44.17 per barrel.
On the currency front, the rupee gained 4 paise to settle at 74.80 against the US dollar. PTI ANS ABM ANS ABM ABM 07291703 NNNNd say we ought to just wait and see a little bit longer before we start opening up the whole of society ... it's going to be difficult, I think, for another year.” Britain now has Europe's highest official pandemic death toll, which stood at more than 45,000 as of Thursday.
Calder was speaking to the AP in a video interview between calls with the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
He was also called on by the Premier League to speak to managers and players during the national lockdown while uncertainty persisted about the safety and wisdom of resuming the competition during a pandemic.
“There was actually a lot of fear ... about going back into an unknown environment and trying to think of a way of getting them through that, out of their houses into grounds safely,” Calder said.
“There is no way we could make it safe and we had to be very, very explicit about that. And all you can do is try and reduce the risk and make a very safe environment at work.”
Premier League players and other club staff have required twice weekly testing for the coronavirus. Of 2,208 tests last week, there were no positive cases.
“The prevalence of the disease has gone much further down and we've now got to review the whole structure,” Calder said.
“We will have to change the testing regime and I would hope that at some stage we won't need to test. But I think initially we've got to continue testing to a certain extent.
“How that goes we're taking advice from the government experts and the virologists and the world experts. But ultimately, I think in next season we may start off with once or twice a week initially with the testing and then review as we go through the season.”
One way players can avoid being infected while away from their clubs is taking preventative measures during the brief offseason break in August.
“When you when you're away, just keep your social distancing — don't let your guard down,” Calder said.
“You probably want to choose the place you go to carefully. The United States of America and Brazil and South America are difficult places ... I'd avoid States and South America at the moment and India and Pakistan.” (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)