Sensex plunges 1,448 points, Nifty ends at 11201.80; market sees worst week since 2008 meltdown

Mumbai: Indian indices on Friday (February 28) witnessed the worst weekly fall for Nifty since 2009 amid fear of Coronavirus outbreak. The Sensex plunged 1,448.37 points or 3.64% at 38297.29, while the Nifty ended 431.50 points down or 3.71% at 11201.80. Except for IOC and Maruti Suzuki among Nifty50, all other stocks ended in the red. About 458 shares advanced, 1975 shares declined, while 145 shares remain unchanged.

Market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms witnessed a massive decline after the Sensex sank 1,100.27 points, or 2.77 per cent, to 38,645.39, and the NSE Nifty cracked 329.50 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 11,303.80.

The carnage in the domestic equity market wiped out investor wealth worth Rs 4,65,915.58 crore, taking the total m-cap to Rs 1,47,74,108.50 crore on the BSE, PTI report said, adding that the m-cap of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,52,40,024.08 crore at the end of trading on Thursday.

All Sensex components were trading in the red, led by losses in Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech and Reliance Industries.

During early hours on Friday, equity indices crumbled as global share prices headed for the worst week since the world financial crisis in 2008 amid coronavirus woes. At 10 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 1,140 points or 2.87 per cent to 38,605 while the Nifty 50 dipped by 353 points or 3.03 per cent at 11,280.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty metal down by 4.6 per cent, realty by 3.89 per cent, IT by 3.36 per cent and pharma by 2.32 per cent.

Meanwhile, global share markets headed for the worst week since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis as investors moved away from risky assets on fears the coronavirus will become a pandemic and derail economic growth.

Asian stocks in China, Japan and South Korea posted heavy losses after an overnight plunge in Wall Street`s benchmarks.

MSCIs regional index excluding Japan shed 1.4 per cent while Japans Nikkei gave up 3.3 per cent on rising fears that the Olympics planned in July and August may be called off due to the coronavirus.

South Korean shares dropped by 2.1 per cent as new infections reported around the world now surpass those in China.

Meanwhile, US markets saw the biggest sell-off in over a decade on Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by 1,191 points to close at 25,767. The S&P 500 slid by 4.4 per cent the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 4.6 per cent.

Gold prices, however, retreated today as investors booked profits from a 1% jump in the last session, but the metal had some support as mounting concerns over the rapid spread of coronavirus lifted expectations of rate cuts by major central banks.