Indian markets has been volatile on March 24 as fear of coronavirus continues to spook investors. Sensex is up 740.21 points or 2.85 percent at 26721.45, and the Nifty jumped 211.10 points or 2.77 percent at 7821.35.
All sectoral indices are trading in the green with IT and the pharma sectors jumping over 4 percent each.
India VIX jumped 10.79 percent and is trading at 79.76 level.
Central banks can be expected to follow suit with bold measures to ease the severely strained credit and financial markets. A major package from the GOI and RBI can be expected shortly. Markets likely to remain hugely volatile with rising possibility of V shaped recovery occasionally. However, the calamity facing humanity is enormous, said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The top gainers from the pharma space included Aurobindo Pharma which jumped over 12 percent and hit upper circuit of Rs 323.75 per share. The other gainers included Cipla, Sun Pharma, Divis Labs, Biocon and Dr Reddy’s Labs.
Among the IT names, Infosys jumped over 7 percent after the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) gave a clean chit to the company in the whistleblower case. This was followed by Hexaware Tech, Mindtree, Wipro, HCL Tech, TCS and Tech Mahindra.
Oil & gas stocks are also buzzing with Nifty Energy up 2 percent. The top gainer include Reliance Industries which jumped over 5 percent. The company in collaboration with the BMC, has set up a dedicated 100 bedded centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai for patients who test positive for COVID-19.
The other gainers include ONGC and NTPC which jumped 2-3 percent followed by GAIL India, HPCL and NTPC.
Share price of ONGC gained 3 percent and was one of the most active stocks with respect to volumes. It was trading with volumes of 1,279,854 shares, compared to its five day average of 4,745,130 shares, a decrease of -73.03 percent.
On the other hand, Reliance Industries was the most active stock in terms of value. It was trading with volumes of 359,434 shares, compared to its five day average of 1,312,635 shares, a decrease of -72.62 percent.
Nifty Bank is trading flat with individual stocks trading mixed. YES Bank shed 6 percent followed by Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank shedding 1-2 percent.
In a filing to the exchanges, IndusInd Bank said that its MD & CEO, Romesh Sobti has retired from the bank. Sumant Kathpalia, who has been designated as managing director and chief executive, will take over the reins from the veteran banker, the bank said.
Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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