Sensex Falls 740 Points, Nifty Slips Below 14,350

The markets failed to halt the selling as bears asserted control throughout the day which led to a bloodbath in the Bank and Financial stocks. Unexpectedly, the broader markets saw higher volatility than key indices with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap declining over two per cent in the intraday trade. However today, Shaktikanta Das – Governor of RBI said that India's revival of economic activity is expected to be ‘unabated’, despite a rise in coronavirus infections in many areas and 2022 growth projections might not need to be cut.

The uncertainty in the market with an increase in infections led the markets to close lower on Thursday, March 25, the BSE Sensex ended the session at 48,440.12, down by 740 points or 1.5 per cent, and the NSE index closed 224 points down at 14,324.90.  

In the major fall for the second consecutive day, around 2147 shares closed with losses on Thursday and turned the sentiment negative. Shares of Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, HUL, and Bajaj Auto were major drags for the BSE Sensex on Thursday.

Maruti Suzuki stood as the top loser of the index as the stock declined around four per cent in the intraday session marking a day’s low of 6,755.25. Earlier this week, the company announced that it will further hike its car prices with effect from April 2021 as the cost of the company’s vehicles is adversely impacted. The overall auto sector declined over two per cent or 627 points in the BSE.

Earlier today, the RBI governor speaking on the PSU Banks said that the privatization of banks is pushed ahead to the centre and the process will go further which was proposed in the Union Budget 2021 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. However, the public banks continued to underperform in the domestic markets, the overall space declined over two per cent on Thursday led by major declines in shares of Punjab National Bank and Bank of India.

Meanwhile, the Singaporean SGX Nifty was trading positive with 100 points gain at the time of filing amid declines in the markets globally.

What should investors do amid volatility?

Analysts continue to guide the investors to look for buying opportunities in the downtrend as to create a better portfolio with clever values. Speaking on the virus front, experts feel that the current spike is less intense than the first wave of virus which was witnessed in 2020, and also the country’s vaccination drive will further create a strong back for the upside momentum.

“A fall in the rate of infection through tougher restrictions and pace in vaccination may quickly stabilize the market”, said Vinod Nair of Geojit Financial Services.

Moving further, strong growth projections from the upcoming quarter will fuel the rally in the market in the future, say analysts.