Street spooked by rising Covid fears

By Siddhant Mishra

Indian equities slumped on Wednesday, amid the worsening Covid situation in China and a spurt of cases worldwide. The government’s directive to states to start tracking positive cases, weighed on sentiment.

Sun Pharma rose 1.6%, leading the Sensex pack, with IT players HCL, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, and Infosys all closing in the green. IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser, sliding 2.28%, while Kotak, SBI, ICICI Bank, and the HDFC twins all closed in the red. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries lost 1.40%.

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Among sectoral indices, the BSE Healthcare jumped 2.25%, while most others ended in the red. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were down 1.40% and 2.18%, respectively.

A total of 731 stocks advanced on the BSE, with 2,841 stocks declining.

Divi’s Lab surged close to 5% in the broader market, followed by Cipla, Apollo Hospitals, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s. Tech stocks also saw buyer interest, though auto stocks were in negative territory. Banking and financial stocks were all down, though the heaviest fall was recorded by Adani Enterprises at over 6%, and Adani Ports at close to 3%.

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DIIs continued being net buyers, pumping in ₹1,757.37 crore, but FIIs once again turned net sellers, pulling out ₹1,119.11 crore.

“The markets came under pressure amid a worsening Covid situation in China, and a spurt of cases in the US, Korea, Brazil, and Japan. Covid-sensitive sectors like pharma and diagnostics were in the limelight and are expected to remain in momentum. On the other hand, sectors like travel and tourism, hotels, airlines, entertainment and retail may witness some pressure. Given the concern over the resurgence of the pandemic, along with recessionary fears, we expect market volatility to continue. In the meantime, investors are monitoring US’ existing home sales data to be released on Wednesday, followed by GDP data of US and the UK on Thursday,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head (Retail Research), Motilal Oswal Financial Services.