The Indian equity market opened on a negative note on Thursday, with the BSE Sensex falling over 400 points. The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also plunged over 100 points to trade below the 9,300 mark.
The decline in the domestic indices is in line with the plunge in the Asian stock markets, analysts said.
Sensex was 31,600.62, lower by 407.99 points or 1.27 percent in early trading hours from the previous close of 32,008.61. It had opened at 31,466.33 and so far touched an intra-day-high of 31,628.56 and a low of 31,344.50.
The Nifty50 was trading at 9,266, lower by 117.55 points or 1.25 percent from the previous close. Interestingly, the fall comes a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several liquidity measures for MSMEs and NBFCs.
Equity benchmark BSE Sensex zoomed 637 points on Wednesday, driven by gains in banking stocks ahead of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's press conference to unveil provisions of the Rs20 trillion stimulus package announced by the government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of the massive economic stimulus to revive the coronavirus-hit economy boosted domestic investor sentiment, traders said.
After rallying 1,474.36 points during the day, the 30-share index surrendered some early gains to settle 637.49 points or 2.03 percent higher at 32,008.61. Similarly, the NSE Nifty jumped 187 points, or 2.03 percent, to finish at 9,383.55.
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging around 7 percent, followed by Ultratech Cement, L&T, ICICI Bank, SBI, M&M and Bajaj Finance. On the other hand, Nestle India, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and HUL ended in the red.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee has erased early losses and is trading marginally higher at 75.44 per US dollar to quote at Dh20.55, amid selling seen in the domestic equity market.It opened lower at 75.58 per dollar against previous close of 75.47.
