Sensex, Nifty extend losses to 5th straight day 

Sensex, Nifty

Sensex and nifty recorded losses for 5 days straight on Wednesday. For the first time in 5 months, Nifty closed below the 17,000 mark. The NSE fell by 71.15 points, 0.4%, to close at 16,972.15. BSE’s Sensex decreased by 344.29 points, or 0.6%, and closed at approximately 57,555.90. Both the indices went between gains and losses during the trading session. 

In the large-cap stocks on Sensex, Bharti Airtel was the top loser down by 2% followed by IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank, and SBI with a downside between 1.5% to 1.9%. 

Reliance Industries, -1.7%,  

Hindustan Unilever -1.6%, 

HDFC Bank -1.5%.  

In the gainers’ list,  Asian Paints led with 3% rise whereas the two prime stocks of  Tata Group, Tata Steel and Titan increased by 2.1% and 1.8%. L&T, Power Grid, and Kotak Bank were also among the gainer scrips and were between 1-1.5%. The Nifty Midcap 150 closed with almost no change while Nifty Small-cap 250 was 0.2% higher. 

The sharp selloff of shares around the world dragged down the Indian equities, Nifty and Sensex after the US bank SVB’s failure and takeover saga. India’s volatility index skyrocketed by nearly 21%, making it the most significant single day increase in over a year. Because of the continuous fall and bearish tone, Indian benchmarks have reached a five-month low level. The Indian stock markets have been in red for 5 consecutive days. 

STOCK MARKET OF USA

The USA indices also witnessed fall over the same reason, with the 30-stock Dow Jones ending 280.83 points, or 0.9%, lower at approximately 31,874.57. S&P 500 dropped 0.7% to 3,891.93 while the Nasdaq Composite eked out a small gain, rising 0.05% to 11,434.05. At one point during the market hours, Dow was down 725 points, and the S&P was down by 500 points, giving up all of its 2024 gains. 

This comes amid concerns over the failure and takeover of the US-based Silicon Valley Bank. On Friday, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was closed by Californian regulators and sent into receivership by The  Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC).  

The government of United Kingdom has announced that it facilitated a London-based banking company ‘HSBC’ to Silicon Valley Bank for 1 pound. The bank will secure and handle the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth nearly 6.7 billion pounds. 

The sudden collapse of The Silicon Valley Bank has become the largest US bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis leaving billions of dollars belonging to companies, investors, and depositors in a stranded position. 

In India, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be meeting all Indian startups that are affected by the takeover of Silicon Valley Bank to understand the impact on these startups and will offer government assistance in order to overcome the losses.   

Sources: The Mint, Economic Times, CNN, Bloomberg, Business Today, Outlook.

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