Sensex, Nifty in red for 5th straight session over coronavirus fears

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices fell for the fifth straight session on Thursday tracking weakness in Asian peers amid concerns about the coronavirus outbreak as investors sought safety in gold and bonds.

Foreign portfolio investors offloaded shares in banking, information technology and automobile sectors. Cautiousness also crept in the market after economists at State Bank of India said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth will likely stay flat at 4.5 per cent in the October to December 2019 quarter.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 143 points or 0.36 per cent lower at 39,746 while the Nifty 50 was down by 45 points to 11,633.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative zone with Nifty realty slipping by 2.42 per cent, PSU bank by 2.27 per cent, IT by 1.28 per cent and metal by 0.82 per cent. But Nifty pharma was up by 0.59 per cent.

Among stocks, Wipro was down by 3.5 per cent at Rs 231.45 per share while JSW Steel dipped by 3 per cent. ONGC too dipped by 3 per cent to close at Rs 92.90 per share.

IndianOil Corporation, UPL, HCL Technologies, State Bank of India and IndusInd Bank traded with a negative bias.

However, Sun Pharma gained by 3.5 per cent to wind up the day at Rs 388 per share. Britannia, Titan, Grasim and Axis Bank showed gains of over 1 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian share and oil markets extended losses as the rapid global spread of the coronavirus kept investors edgy.

Reports said rising fears of a pandemic had already wiped more than 3.6 trillion dollars from global stock markets by Wednesday’s close.

Japan’s Nikkei fell by 2.13 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi dropped by 1.05 per cent. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng moved up marginally by 0.31 per cent.

Cases of the virus have appeared in nine new countries including Romania, Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Pakistan and Switzerland. This brought the number of countries hit by the virus to more than 45. (ANI)