Sensex slips another 850 points, Nifty breaches 9,000

Mumbai: The S&P BSE Sensex was hovering around 31,650 levels, up 260 points, or 0.8 per cent  after falling as much as 500 points earlier in the session. The Nifty50 index was trading 80 points, or 0.88 per cent, higher at 9,280 levels on tuesday amid value-buying in recently-hammered stocks even as investors fretted over an impending economic global recession led by Covid-19 pandemic.

Majority of the Nifty sectoral indices were trading in the green with Nifty Metal index, up 3 per cent, and Nifty Pharma index, up 2 per cent, leading the gains.

Shares of Yes Bank on Tuesday further jumped nearly 35 percent after Moody's upgraded the company's ratings.

Rallying for the third consecutive day, the company's scrip zoomed 34 percent to Rs 49.75 on the BSE. On the NSE, it spiked by 34.77 per cent to Rs 50. The scrip has jumped nearly 100 per cent in three days.

Yes Bank shares had on Monday also jumped sharply by over 45 percent after the announcement of a restructuring plan. The rating agency upgraded the company's ratings and also changed its outlook to positive

In the previous session, the sensex logged its second-biggest drop in absolute terms, plunging 2,713.41 points or 7.96 per cent to finish at 31,390.07. Likewise, the Nifty slumped 757.80 points or 7.61 per cent to end at 9,197.40.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,809.93 crore on monday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

Tata Steel was the top gainer, followed by Maruti, Sun Pharma, HUL, ONGC and Reliance Industries, while HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank and Titan were the top laggards.

According to traders, despite heightened volatility amid fears of an economic recession, investors began bottom fishing at lower levels.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Japan were trading on a positive note, while those in Seoul were in the red.

In overnight trade, Wall Street indices collapsed in their worst day since 1987, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropping about 12 per cent and the Dow sinking nearly 13 per cent on new coronavirus (covid-19) scare.

The number of deaths around the world linked to the virus has topped 7,000, after Italy announced a new surge in fatalities, with over 1,75,000 infections recorded globally so far.

In India, the number of infected cases stood at 125, as per union health ministry log.

After market hours on Monday, the Reserve Bank hinted at a rate cut but stopped short of a decision, belying market expectations at a hurriedly called presser even as it announced some liquidity enhancing measures to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

But Governor Shaktikanta Das was quick to assure that the Reserve Bank has "enough policy tools and stands ready to take any measures" needed to help the economy tide over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In two liquidity enhancing measures, Das announced another round of USD 2 billion dollar-rupee swap on March 23, and in another measure he said the RBI will continue to conduct the long-term repo operations (LTROs) of up to Rs 1 lakh crore as and when the market needs it.

The rupee appreciated 22 paise to 74.03 against US dollar in morning session.