The Indian markets ended lower on Wednesday as coronavirus cases continued to rise amid a three-week nationwide lockdown. The Sensex was down 1,203 points or 4% to close at 28,265, while the National Stock Exchange Nifty 50 fell 344 points or 4% to end at 8,254.
The biggest losers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and State Bank of India. On the Nifty, the top losers were UPL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Infosys limited.
On the other hand, only two stocks gained on the Sensex – Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp. The two stocks also gained on Nifty.
The foreign exchange market will remain closed on Wednesday and Thursday on account of annual bank closing and Ram Navami. On Tuesday, the Indian rupee ended flat at 75.62 against the US dollar.
Other major Asian markets, with the exception of the Australian market, also traded in red. The Hong Kong Hang Seng was down 601.75 points, the Nikkei 225 851.60 points, the Taiwan TSEC 50 Index 44.43 points and the Shanghai SE Composite Index 11.88 points.
The recessionary phase in the global markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to investors losing over Rs 30 lakh crore on the Indian stock market in March itself, Moneycontrol reported. Foreign investors pulled out over Rs 60,000 crore from Indian equity markets. The Sensex and Nifty fell by about 23% each to post their worst monthly fall since October 2008.
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