Heavy selloff in RIL pushes markets into red

Mumbai: Market gauges Sensex and Nifty on Tuesday managed to recoup most of the day's losses, yet closed lower due to a heavy selloff in Reliance Industries amid weak Asian cues triggered by fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections globally.

After plunging over 716 points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex staged a late recovery to pare losses but still settled 190.10 points or 0.60 per cent lower at 31,371.12. Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 42.65 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 9,196.55.

Reliance Industries was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plunging over 6 per cent, followed by Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, HUL, HDFC Bank and ONGC. On the other hand, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, ITC and IndusInd Bank and PowerGrid were among the top gainers.

Sectorally, BSE energy, oil and gas, capital goods and healthcare indices fell up to 5 per cent. While telecom, power, metal and teck ended up to 4.27 per cent higher. In the broader market, BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell up to 0.75 per cent.

"Markets traded weak for most part of the day on concerns of Justice B N Srikrishna red flagging the Reliance Jio-Facebook deal but HDFC and Bharti Airtel led an afternoon charge to help the dalal street," S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities, said. Weak cues from global markets on fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections spooked investors across Asia, traders said. After weeks of no new cases, Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the outbreak first emerged, reported six new infections in two days and South Korea announced its biggest spike in new cases in more than a month. Following the reports, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul finished in the red.

Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a mixed note in early deals. "Shares fell Tuesday in Asia as worries over fresh outbreaks of coronavirus cases overshadowed hopes over reopening economies," Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said.