Gone in 41 sessions! Nifty falls from 12,430.50 to 8,541.50 - 3,947 points

Taking Stock: Another 3-year low for Sensex, Nifty; what should investors do?

The Nifty formed a bearish candle and recorded a fresh breakdown as the index was not able to hold Friday the 13th's low of 8,555.... Read More

The index is expected to continue with its southward journey & can roll down to 8025, which is the 78.6% retracement of the rally post 2016 low. On the flip side, the near term resistance zone gets trailed to 8800-9000.

Indian rupee closesflat at 74.26 per dollar against Wednesday's close of 74.25 per dollar.It opened higher by 26paiseat73.98 per dollar.

After opening on a strong note, the Indian rupee has slipped into the red on fears of coronavirus spread in the country. The steep decline in domestic equities further dampened the sentiment. The local unit has a crucial support around 74.50 levels and any break past that will further weaken the rupee. On the contrary, any recovery is likely to be short lived wherein rupee can test levels of around 73.80-73.50. The larger trend continues to be weak for the domestic currency, given the economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak.

Markets are not showing any sign of slowdown despite the sharp correction in the benchmark and stocks across the board. And, the pressure in the banking space has raised fresh concerns, which might cascade in the following sessions too. We reiterate our advice accumulating fundamentally sound counters in staggered manner rather trying to find the market bottom. Traders, on the other hand, should prefer options strategies instead of naked trades until the market stabilizes.

Gold fell more than 2.5% as concerns over the global economic impact from the coronavirus outweighed stimulus measures by the United States, forcing investors to dump most assets for the safety of cash: Reuters.

Markets continue to witness selling pressure on account of global volatility. A possible long term support is seen at 8400-8500 levels. Continue to expect volatile swings as India-VIX remains elevated. An immediate reversal is unlikely but a bounce back from here is highly probable. Long term investors can consider accumulating gradually.

Indian markets ended at 3 year lows, with Nifty below the 8500 mark, in tandem with Asian and European markets after global agencies warned of a global recession following the impact of Covid-19. At the same time rising infections in India and associated disruption in businesses led to India’s GDP growth forecasts also being downgraded. This will also affect the government’s fiscal maths, which was already tight. Additionally, with the supreme-court not providing any respite to telecom players, the banking stocks which have exposure to the telecom sector were most impacted today.

Markets will continue to mirror the developments overseas till some comfort on the spread of the pandemic is received. It is too early to say when the feeling that the asset prices are lower than their intrinsic value would start coming in.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced Open Market Operation (OMO) purchases of Government of India dated securities. The RBI to buy up to Rs 10,000 crore of 4 Gilts via OMO purchases on March 20.

'Rupee traded weak as Corona virus Covid-19 keeps playing the pain for global markets included Indian market showing no respite to any assets including risky & non risky now. Rupee depreciated beyond 74.35 now next point where it can take some halt is around 74.55. Given the current situation it can cross even below 74.55, unless some measures from RBI comes in'.

The sell-off continued on the third straight session on March 18 with Nifty breached 8,500 level, while recovered some lost ground in the final hour of the trade.

At close, the Sensex was down 1,709.58 points or 5.59% at 28,869.51, while Nifty was down 425.55 points or 4.75% at 8,541.50. About 392 shares have advanced, 1947 shares declined, and 146 shares are unchanged.

Zee Entertainment, ONGC, Yes Bank, ITC and SBI were among major gainers on the Nifty, while losers were IndusInd Bank, Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid Corp.

All the sectoral indices ended in the red. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 4-6 percent.