Rising fears of Covid-19 spread subdue Indian equity markets

Mumbai, Oct 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) Global cues, especially the rising Covid-19 infection rate in Europe, continued to subdue the Indian equity market for the second straight session on Thursday.

Globally, Asian stock markets fell but did not see the panic selling seen in Europe and the US in the previous session.

On the other hand, European markets started on a firmer footing after concerns that investors were bracing themselves for some big ticket announcements such as European Central bank's latest monetary policy statement.

Back home, volumes on the NSE were in line with recent averages.

Among sectors, IT and energy indices were the only gainers, while media, auto, FMCG, metals and pharma indices ended up in the red.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,670.80, lower by 58.80 points, or 0.5 per cent, from its previous close.

The Sensex closed at 39,749.85 points, lower by 172.61 points, or 0.43 per cent, from its previous close of 39,922.46.

"Negative advance decline ratio over the last few sessions denote continuous profit taking by local institutions and non institutional players," said Deepak Jasani- Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"Our markets will look forward to panic settling down elsewhere to stabilise and see some upmove."

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "As expected the Indian stock market has turned its focus from Q2 result driven rally to international developments as global market is worsening."

"Markets across the world are volatile because of rising corona cases impacting the recovery of economy and ambiguities over the US election and stimulus package. Additionally, today Indian indices ended weak following October monthly F&O expiry."

"This weakness can stay for the short-term, a reversal can happen as strong fiscal and monetary stimulus is expected from govts and central banks in the world to overcome the crisis."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "On the domestic side, lot of stock specific action was seen based on their individual Q2 earnings. RIL posted its sharpest gains in the last 11 sessions, ahead of results tomorrow, helping Nifty outperform regional markets. Cement and paint companies also emerged as top gainers but failed to nullify the drag caused by financial stocks."

"Going ahead, market is likely to remain under pressure, till the overhang of US elections and the surging global cases in Europe continue."

Source: IANS