MARKET: Sensex sees 1,300-pt intra-day swing; ends 153 pts lower at 38,144

Panic selling in the last hour of the session after two new COVID-19 cases were detected in Delhi and Telangana spooked equity market on Monday, thus sending the benchmark indices into the negative territory for the seventh session in a row. 

The S&P BSE Sensex, which hit a high of 39,083.17, up 786 points during the day, erased all its gains to settle at 38,144, down 153 points against Friday’s close of 38,297.29. State-run lender State Bank of India (SBI) ended as the biggest loser on the index with 5 per cent decline while IT major HCL Tech (up over 2 per cent) emerged as the biggest gainer. Besides SBI, Reliance Industries (RIL), Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finance contributed the most to the index’s fall. 

On the NSE, the 50-share Nifty index ended at 11,133 points, down 69 points or 0.62 per cent. 

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index slipped 0.65 per cent to 14,504 levels and the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended 0.77 per cent lower at 13,604 levels.

Market breadth was in favour of declines as out of 2,616 companies traded on the BSE, 1,509 declined and 946 advanced while 161 remained unchanged. 

Volatility index India VIX climbed nearly 8.5 per cent to 25.20 levels. 

On the sectoral front, except Nifty IT, all the other indices ended in the negative zone. Media stocks bled the most with the Nifty Media index plunging over 4.5 per cent to 1,595 levels. PSU Bank stocks were next on the list. Nifty IT, on the other hand, gained around 1.5 per cent to 15,428. 

Global Markets

E-minis for the S&P500, which were down more than 1 per cent at one point, were last up 0.5 per cent.

Oil prices rebounded more than $1 a barrel on hopes of a deeper cut in output by OPEC after earlier hitting multi-year lows.

(With inputs from Reuters)