Sensex tanks 1,258 points amid HMPV fears

Frontline stock market indices on Monday plunged more than 1.5% owing to a host of factors including concerns over spread of the HMPV virus in China and a few cases detected in India, weak corporate earnings of certain companies, and continued selling by FIIs, analysts said.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 1,258 points, or 1.59%, to 77,965. Top Sensex losers include Tata Steel (4.41%), NTPC (3.65%), Kotak Bank (3.25%), PowerGrid (3.19%), Adani Ports (3.04%) and Zomato (2.95%). 

The fall was intense in midcap and smallcap stocks. The BSE midcap was down 2.44%, while the BSE smallcap fell 3.17%. The NSE Nifty-50 index too fell 388.70 points, or 1.62%, to 23,616 points.

“Monday’s fall in Nifty was the highest one day fall since 3rd October 2024 in percentage terms. BankNifty plunged more than 2% and closed at the lowest level since 14th August 2024. NSE cash market volumes remained flat as compared to Friday,” said Vinay Rajani, Senior Technical & Derivative Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Declining shares outnumbered advancing shares, wherein the advance decline ratio stood at 0.19 at the BSE, the lowest since October 22, 2024. Among sectoral indices, none closed in the green. Nifty PSU Bank, Oil & Gas, Realty and Metals indices were the top losers.

“By falling more than 675 points from the recent swing high of 24,226, Nifty has negated the bullish developments on the short-term charts. Trend has turned bearish, where immediate supports for the Nifty are seen at 23,460 and 23,263. Resistances for Nifty are seen at 23,800 and 24,090,” he said.

Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd said, “Markets experienced a sharp decline. After an initial uptick, the benchmarks tumbled sharply, driven by few weak quarterly updates from the banking sector and concerns over new virus [HMPV] cases reported in India. As a result, the Nifty index slid below its 200-day exponential moving average [200 DEMA], closing at 23,616.05. The selling pressure was widespread, with metal, energy, and realty sectors leading the losses. Broader indices also faced significant pressure, recording losses of 2.7% to 3.1%.”