Sensex tanks over 650 points, Nifty below 11,200-mark after 28 new coronavirus cases test positive

Extending the morning losses, equity indices crashed nearly 2 percent by afternoon after 28 new suspected coronavirus cases were tested positive in the country on Wednesday.

#CNBCTV18Market | Benchmark indices continue falling, #Nifty Bank slips more than 1,000 points, #Nifty below 11,100 pic.twitter.com/595AmzAHWD

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) March 4, 2020

Benchmark Sensex tanked over 650 points to below 38,000-mark while the broader Nifty was down 188 points at around 1.30 PM.

Sensex was trading 659.38 points or 1.71 percent, lower at 37,964.32 while Nifty slipped 188.45 points or 1.67 percent to 11,114.85 at around 1.30 PM.

In the Sensex pack, Tata Steel was the top loser at 4.76 percent. Other losers included IndusInd Bank ( 4.4 percent), SBI (4.23 percent), Bajaj Finance (3.8 percent) and HDFC Bank (2.85 percent).

Earlier, the markets had opened on a choppy note tracking persistent foreign fund outflow and tepid cues from global markets as concerns over the economic fallout of coronavirus epidemic continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

In the previous session, the 30-share BSE barometer surged 479.68 points or 1.26 percent to end at 38,623.70, and the broader Nifty jumped 170.55 points or 1.53 percent to close at 11,303.30.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors (FPIs) sold equities worth Rs 2,415.80 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 3,135.24 crore on Tuesday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

According to traders, besides incessant foreign fund outflow, market remained on edge as six people in India were confirmed to be infected by coronavirus.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in South Korea rallied over 2 percent after the country reported a significantly lower increase in the number of fresh coronavirus cases than the day before.

Stock exchanges in China, Hong Kong and Japan were also trading with gains in their morning sessions.

On the other hand, US stocks ended sharply lower on Tuesday, despite a surprise inter-meeting interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The US central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a sizable half-percentage point in an effort to support the economy in the face of the spreading coronavirus.

Chairman Jerome Powell noted that the coronavirus “poses evolving risks to economic activity”.

— With PTI inputs