Sensex Sheds 2,713 Points, Nifty Below 9,200 At Close; VIX Highest Since ‘08

Indian markets ended with major cuts, mirroring weak cues across Asia and Europe.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 7.96 percent to end at 31,390. This was the lowest level since September 29, 2017. All of the 30 constituents ended with losses, with 24 of them ending at a 52-week low.

The NSE Nifty 50 Index too fell 7.6 percent to close at 9,197. These levels were last seen in April 2017. Barring Yes Bank, all other 49 constituents of the index ended with cuts.

All sectoral indices ended with losses, led by the Metals index, that closed with cuts of 8.9 percent. Nifty Bank, Nifty I.T. & Nifty Realty were the other indices that ended with cuts of 8 percent or more.

Advance decline was firmly in favour of the declines. 1,350 stocks ended with cuts while 224 stocks saw gains at the close of trade.

India's Department of Telecom has filed a plea in the Supreme Court, seeking permission for telecom companies to pay the entire amount of AGR dues over a period of 20 years, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

The plea says that an adverse impact on telecom companies will have a cascading impact on the economy.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd. are trading with cuts of 4.3 percent at Rs 470.40 per share. Vodafone Idea Ltd. on the other hand are trading with gains of 3.57 percent at Rs 5.80 per share.

Nifty: March 19 Expiry

• 10,000 Call: Premium falls 72 percent to Rs 79.25. The contract has added 10 lakh shares in open interest.
• 9,000 Put: Premium rises 131.8 percent to Rs 321.10. The contract has shed 1.58 lakh shares in open interest.
• 8,100 Put: Premium rises 116.2 percent to Rs 112.55. The contract has added 2.52 lakh shares in open interest.

Nifty Bank: March 19 Expiry

• 21,000 Put: Premium rises 151.2 percent to Rs 472. The contract has added 2,180 shares in open interest.
• 25,000 Call: Premium falls 67.4 percent to Rs 299. The contract has added 1.7 lakh shares in open interest.
• 22,000 Put: Premium rises 194 percent to Rs 735.1. The contract has added 58,400 shares in open interest.

• Nifty down 6.34 percent to 9,323
• Nifty futures add 20 percent in open interest and are trading at a 112 point discount
• Nifty Bank down 7.43 percent to 23,297
• Nifty Bank futures add 18.38 percent in open interest and are trading at a 150 point discount
• Nifty Midcap and Smallcap index fall 6 percent each
• Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal index fall 7 percent each
• India Volatility index up 12 percent to 57.65
• 216 stocks in the broader market universe trade with gains while 1,367 stocks trade with losses

As Indian equity market continue to trade near the lowest point of the day, Amit Khurana of Dolat Capital is advising investors to adopt a wait and watch approach.

In an interaction with BloombergQuint, Khurana said that he would wait for the markets to stabilise before making fresh investment calls.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the interaction he had with this platform:

• Do not see systemic risk at this stage in India
• Markets are concerned about the earnings of corporates for the next 12 to 18 months
• There are concerns on the quality of few banks
• Expecting a rate cut and liquidity support from RBI in today's announcement
• Regulator will take appropriate steps when required

Shares of IndusInd Bank Ltd. and RBL Bank Ltd. are seeing declines of over 15 percent each in today's trade.

RBL Bank is down for the fifth day out of the last six trading sessions. Shares are trading near an all-time low. The last six sessions has seen prices drop by as much as 45 percent.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank too is down for five out of the last six trading sessions. The lender has seen its market cap erode by Rs 16,000 crore in the last six trading sessions. Prices have fallen 38 percent in during the said period.

Shares of multiplex operators on Monday fell sharply after various states announced the closure of cinema halls till March 31 in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

PVR tumbled 18.85 percent to its 52-week low of Rs 1,045.85, and INOX Leisure plunged 14.77 percent to hit its day's low of Rs 270 on the BSE.

In view of the coronavirus threat, several states have announced to close cinema halls till March 31.

The move will hit the business of multiplex operators which dent their profitability in days to come, traders said.

The number of infected cases in the country stood at 110 on Monday, as per the health ministry.

(Inputs From PTI)

The telecom operator in an exchange filing said that they have paid a further amount of Rs 3,354 crore to the Department of Telecom, as per its self-assessment exercise.

The company had earlier paid a sum of Rs 2,500 crore on February 17, 2020 and a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore on February 20, 2020 towards the liability.

The stock currently trades 4.46 percent higher at Rs 5.85 on the National Stock Exchange.

SBI Cards had a tepid listing on the Bourses, listing at a 12.5 percent discount to its issue price of Rs 755 per share. However, the management of the company says that the price is due to the prevailing market conditions and that the fundamentals of the company remains strong.

MD & CEO Hardayal Prasad in an interaction with BloombergQuint said that the recent restrictions imposed on travel due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus will have an impact on the business.

• Nifty down 4.85 percent at 9,472.
• Nifty futures add 14.8 percent in open interest and trade at a discount of 95 points
• Nifty Bank down 6 percent at 23,674
• Nifty Bank futures added 8.6 percent in open interest and trade at a discount of 105.3 points
• Sensex down 5.1 percent at 32,373
• All sectoral indices traded with losses
• India Volatility Index up 11.8 percent at 57.5
• Nifty Midcap and Smallcap index down 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively
• 282 stocks on the NSE are advancing while 1,272 stocks trade with cuts

Markets were in overbought territory and the Coronavirus was just the reason that it needed to correct, according to Madhusudan Kela of MK Ventures.

In an interaction to BloombergQuint, Kela talks about systematically investing in the markets over the next 30-45 days and that investments made for a 3-5 year horizon would yield good returns.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the interview:

• Selling may continue for some more time
• Markets will bounceback equally sharply when Coronavirus fears subside
• Difficult to predict when flows will turn positive
• Many companies available at cheap valuations in pharma, media sector
• Expecting a rate cut from the MPC during the monetary policy

• Worldwide cases at 1.66 lakh
• Death toll rises to 6,400
• Italy adds 368 deaths in a day
• New York City and Los Angeles limited restaurants & bars to takeout and delivery services
• Total cases in India at 110 with Maharashtra topping the list with 32 cases.

10.4 lakh shares of the state-run upstream explorer changed hands in a single large trade on the National Stock Exchange, as per Bloomberg data.

Buyers and sellers of the trade were not immediately known. The stock currently trades 2.2 percent lower at Rs 64.40 as of 11:10 AM.

Nifty: March 19 Expiry

• 9,000 Put: Premium rises 75.8 percent to Rs 243.55. The contract has shed 21,975 shares in open interest.
• 10,000 Call: Premium falls 61.6 percent to Rs 108.70. The contract has added 6.81 lakh shares in open interest.
• 8,500 Put: Premium rises 68.69 percent to Rs 139. The contract has added 2.48 lakh shares in open interest.

Nifty Bank: March 19 Expiry

• 22,000 Put: Premium rises 102.8 percent to Rs 507.65. The contract has added 93,280 shares in open interest.
• 28,000 Call: Premium falls 29.26 percent to Rs 66. The contract has added 1.15 lakh shares in open interest.
• 21,000 Put: Premium rises 73.54 percent to Rs 326. The contract has shed 440 shares in open interest.

Yes Bank Ltd. has gained the most on record, with share prices surging as much as 55 percent on the National Stock Exchange.

The private lender's reconstruction plan was approved by the Government of India with SBI investing to buy 49 percent stake, along with contributions from other private lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank and Federal Bank.

The bank then reported a record loss in the third quarter of Rs 18,564 crore, despite a tax write-back of Rs 6,214 crore. Gross NPA for the lender stood at 18.87 percent while the net NPA was at 5.97 percent.

Wonderla Holidays Ltd., in a statement to the exchanges has announced the temporary closure of the Amusement Park in Hyderabad till March 21.

The company on Friday had announced the temporary closure of its Bangalore park till March 20, in compliance with the guidelines issued by the Government of Karnataka.

It has already temporarily closed down its park in Kochi till March 20, according to a statement to the exchanges on March 11.

The stock fell as much as 12.25 percent on the National Stock Exchange, the lowest level seen in six years. The stock currently trades 8.5 percent lower at Rs 170, which is a 52-week low.

Indian equity markets mirrored weak global cues to open sharply lower, giving up most of the gains made during Friday's sharp recovery.

The S&P BSE Sensex opened 4.86 percent lower at 32,446. The index opened with declines of more than 1,000 points. All of the 30 constituents on the index opened with cuts.

The NSE Nifty 50 index too opened 4.89 percent lower at 9,468. The index remains in bear market territory, falling over 20 percent from the record high levels made in February. All but one out of the 50 constituents opened with losses.

Volatility remained higher with the India Volatility Index opening 6.6 percent higher at levels of 54.81.

Market breadth remained in favour of the declines. 1,123 stocks on the National Stock Exchange opened with losses while 151 opened with gains.

The Indian rupee opened weaker, falling 0.35 percent to 74.16. against the U.S. dollar.

The currency had fallen to an all-time low of 74.50 against the greenback in Friday's trading session, before central bank intervention led the recovery.

• Indiabulls Group: Clarifies that the raids took place at Yes Bank's offices in the premises of Indiabulls and not on the group.
• Marico: The minimum support price on Copra increased to Rs 9,960 per quintal from Rs 9,521 per quintal.
• Transformers & Rectifiers: Gets order for the supply of transformers worth Rs 130 crore from Power Grid.
• RCF: ICRA downgrades banking facilities and NCDs worth Rs 5,600 crore to AA- (Stable) from AA (Negative) due to weakening cost competitiveness and tighter energy norms from Government of India.
• Wonderla Holidays: To temporarily close its park in Bangalore from March 14-20 in accordance with safety and precautionary guidelines by the Government of Karnataka.
• RITES: Gets consulting orders of Rs 60 crore from the Government of India.
• Bharat Forge: Long-term rating of ECBs and fund-based facilities have been revised by ICRA to AA+ (Negative) from AA+ (Stable)

Find out all that you need to know ahead of today’s trade HERE!

• U.S. Federal Reserve cut key rates to 0.25 percent, the lowest level seen in December 2015
• Fed Chair Jerome Powell said second quarter growth in the U.S. would probable be weak and that it was hard to know how long the effects would lost.
• The Fed also allowed banks to borrow from the discount window for as long as 90 days.
• The Fed combined with five other central banks around the world to ensure availability of dollars via Swap Lines.

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, fell 4.2 percent percent to 9,560 as of 7:25 a.m.

Japanese shares fluctuated between gains and losses while Australian equities fell 6 percent. Indices in Hong Kong fell over 2.5 percent.

Futures on the S&P 500 index fell 5 percent, hitting lower limits after rising over 9 percent on Friday. The Bank of Japan will also decide on its policy on Monday, bringing forward its meeting scheduled for later this week.

Short on time? Well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of All You Need To Know before the opening bell.