Market Roundup: BSE Sensex plunges 871 points, Nifty ends below 14,600

Both the market indices plunged over 1.5 percent to give a negative ending for the second consecutive day on Thursday, 25 March, with the BSE Sensex ending below the 48,500 mark.

BSE

The BSE Sensex plunged 740.19 points or 1.51 percent to close at 48,440.12. There were only four gainers on the BSE including Dr Reddy, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro (LT) and HDFC. While the worst performers are Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Auto and NTPC. Top BSE Sensex gainers: Dr Reddy: The shares of the company gained 0.74 percent to close at Rs 4,383.30. ICICI Bank: Share of the bank witnessed a hike of 0.70 percent to end at Rs 571.40. HDFC: The company shares ended at Rs 2,472.45 with a hike of 0.25 percent. Larsen & Toubro (LT): 0.21 percent rise was noticed in the share price of the company which closed at Rs 1,371.45. Top BSE Sensex Losers: Maruti Suzuki: The shares fell 3.98 percent to give a lower ending at Rs 6,786.15. Bharti Airtel: 2.98 percent fall was witnessed in the share prices of the telecom major to end at Rs 508.00. Hindustan Unilever: The company shares plunged 2.92 percent to end at Rs 2,250.50. Bajaj Auto: The shares closed at Rs 3,501.85 witnessing a decline of 2.86 percent. NTPC: 2.83 percent decline was noted in the share prices which closed at Rs 103.00.

NSE

The NSE Nifty closed the day lower at 14,324.90, down 224.50 points or 1.54 percent. All the Nifty sectoral indices too gave a negative closing on Thursday. Nifty FMCG closed at 33,213.15 down by 773.95 points or 2.28 percent followed by the Nifty IT index which fell 565.85 points or 2.19 percent to close at 25,237.10. Nifty Auto declined by 273.90 points or 2.76 percent to settle the day at 9,651.35 and Nifty Pharma which lost 0.83 percent or 99.50 points to end at 11,816.80   Top gainers on NSE Nifty: Tata Steel: The share price surged 2.87 percent to close at Rs 722.95. Dr Reddy: It witnessed a hike of 0.78 percent to close at Rs 4,384.50. ICICI Bank: 0.55 percent gain was witnessed by the bank to close the day at Rs 570.60. HDFC: Shares closed at Rs 2,478.00 with a gain of 0.50 percent. Larsen & Toubro: 0.35 percent jump was witnessed in the share prices of the company which closed at Rs 1,374.00. Top losers on NSE Nifty: IOC: The shares of the company declined by 4.02 percent to settle lower at Rs 90.75. Maruti Suzuki: 3.88 percent fall was observed in the share prices which closed at Rs 6,792.00. Coal India: The shares dragged by 3.40 percent to end at Rs 127.80. Bharti Airtel: The shares of the company closed at Rs 507.20 witnessing a decline of 3.14 percent. Hindustan Unilever: The company shares lost 3.00 percent to settle the day at Rs 2,248.95. “Domestic equities fell for the third consecutive day despite favourable cues from Asian markets as prevailing concerns with regards to sharp rise in COVID-19 cases have clearly dented investors’ sentiments,” said Binod Modi, Head - Strategy at Reliance Securities. Barring financials and metals, all key sectoral indices ended in red. Further, futures and options (F&O) expiry factor also contributed to volatility, he noted, adding that market capitalisation of domestic market slipped below Rs 200 trillion first time after February 3, 2021, resulting in wealth erosion of over Rs 5 trillion in last two days. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong were in the red, while Tokyo and Seoul ended on a positive note. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading with losses in mid-session deals. Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.35 per cent lower at $63.54 per barrel. With inputs from PTI