New Delhi: Nervousness in the Chinese market, coupled with a steep rise in the daily Covid-19 infections back home along with monthly expiry of the derivative contracts, turned markets volatile on Thursday. Even though bulls tried to wrestle back and took the benchmark Sensex 647 points higher from the day’s low, bears had the last laugh.
Among the key indices, the BSE barometer of 30 shares ended at 48,440 levels, down 740 points or 1.5 per cent. On the NSE, the broader 50-share index ended at 14,348 levels, down 201 points or 1.4 per cent.
Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, UltraTech Cement, and Reliance Industries were the top laggards on the Sensex, while Indian Oil Corporation, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Eicher Motors, and Britannia were the additional losers on the Nifty. These stocks were down between 3 per cent and 4 per cent.
On the upside, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC, and Dr Reddy’s Labs were the top gainers on the indices, up in the range of 0.35 per cent to 3 per cent.
Pain in the broader market was even more severe. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices closed 2.22 per cent and 1.85 per cent lower, respectively.