Rising bond yields, Covid-19 cases spoil D-St party; Sensex slides 487 points
An across-the-board sell-off dragged the benchmark indices around a per cent lower on Friday as sombre global mood hit markets during the second-half of the trading session. US 10-year Treasury yields rose again on Friday, back above 1.6 per cent, and were on track to rise for the seventh straight week. Add to it, the dollar index rose 0.4 per cent denting sentiment further.
Against this backdrop, gains in Asian stock markets proved tough to match for most of European peers, after they hit a 1-year high in the prior session. Nasdaq Futures, which tumbled over 1.5 per cent, or 200 points, also suggested a lower start for Wall Street later in the day.
Japan’s Nikkei added 1.7 per cent – but this faded out as Europe opened for business. Britain’s FTSE 100 and the STOXX Europe 600 slipped around 0.5 per cent each, weighing on the MSCI World Index, which was down 0.1 per cent.
Back home, the equity indices snapped their three-day winning streak and settled 0.9 per cent lower. The frontline S&P BSE Sensex dropped 487 points, or 0.95 per cent, to end the day at 50,792 levels. From the intra-day high of 51,822, the index plunged 1,284 points to hit an intra-day low of 50,538.
On the NSE, the Nifty index held the 15,000-mark to close at 15,031 levels, down 144 points, or 0.95 per cent. In the intra-day trade, the index hit a low of 14,954.
26 of the 30 constituents on the Sensex and 42 of the 50 constituents on the Nifty ended the day in the red. Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Ports, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, SBI, and Reliance Industries, all down between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, were the top laggards on the indices.
On the flipside, PowerGrid, Titan Company, Infosys, ONGC, Indian Oil Corp, BPCL, and JSW Steel remained the top gainers on the benchmark indices.
In the broader markets, the S&P BSE SmallCap index fended the fall and settled 0.14 per cent higher supported by gains in Apollo Pipes, Jindal Poly Firms, MTNL, BGR Energy Systems, Delta Corp, and Meghmani Organics.
The MidCap counterpart, however, fell 0.45 per cent.
Sectorally, all the NSE indices were painted red with the Nifty Auto and PSU Bank indices down around 2 per cent each. The Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, Metal, and Private Bank indices, on the other hand, slipped nearly 1 per cent.