Sensex Pares Some Losses After Plunging 500 Points

Indian shares nosedived in early trades on Thursday following another massive surge in coronavirus infections in the country, and despite recovering some lost ground subsequently, remain firmly down in negative territory.

India reported more than 3 lakh COVID-19 on Wednesday, with as many as 3,15,660 new cases and 2,091 deaths being recorded in the country till about an hour before midnight.

Although the government has stated that lockdown will be a last resort, the relentless surge in new cases has raised fears that the country may have to resort to widespread restrictions to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Automobile, capital goods, FMCG and consumer durables shares are among the prominent loses.

The 30-share BSE Sensex, which plunged as much as 500 points to 47,204.50, has recovered to 47,481.35, but still remains 224.45 points or 0.47 percent behind its previous close.

The broader Nifty index is down 56.80 points or 0.4 percent at 14,239.60, after tumbling to a low of 14,151.40 in early trades.

ended the session down 243.62 points, or 0.51 percent, at 47,705.80, while the broader Nifty index settled at 14,296.40, down 63.05 points, or 0.44 percent, from its previous close.

IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Mahindra & Mahindra are sliding 2 to 3 percent. Titan Industries, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro are also notably lower.

Nestle shares are down by about 1.1 percent despite the company reporting higher net earnings in the first quarter of this calendar year. The company reported a 14.6% surge in earnings in the quarter ended March 2021 at Rs 602.2 crore against Rs 525.4 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Wipro, Tata Steel, BPCL, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, SBI Life, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and ONGC are up in positive territory, gaining between 1.5 and 4.3 percent.