Nifty drops below 8000 pts as FPIs keep up selling

Govt bans export of surgical masks, ventilators

The government banned export of all ventilators, surgical/disposable masks and textile raw material used for making masks with immediate effect. "The export of all ventilators, surgical/disposable masks only, and textile raw material for masks and coveralls only...has been prohibited, with immediate effect," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification. However, items like gloves can be exported.

After sinking close to 8 per cent intra-day, benchmark Nifty-50 Index dropped below the 8000mark on Thursday, as coronavirus cases kept on rising in the country, forcing more lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The rupee fell to a new all time low of 75.30 per US dollar, leading to highvolume selling by foreign investors; as per provisional data foreign portfolio investors sold equities worth Rs 4,622 crore on Thursday.

The Nifty-50 dropped sharply in the early morning trade by 8.12 per cent, or 636.25 points, to 7832 on negative global cues with a spike in coronavirus cases and casualties across the globe. The index closed at 8263.45, down by 205.35 points, or 2.42 per cent. The Sensex too fell below the 27000mark to an intra-day low of 26,714, dropping 7.46 per cent, but recovered sharply to close above 28K at 28288.23, shedding 581.28 points, or 2.01 per cent.

Investors lost another Rs 3.76 lakh crore as the BSE's market capitalisation fell to Rs 1,09,76,781.00 crore against Rs 1,13,53,329.30 crore on Wednesday.

The volatility index India VIX shot up to a new high of 73.34 and closed 12.89 per cent up at 72.19.

With rising cases of coronavirus, volatility is likely to continue in coming days and any bounce would be said.

Siddhartha Khemka, head-retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said, "Technically, there is no sign of reversal and we may see Nifty continue to fall towards 7,900 and then 7,500 levels."

On a day of high volatility NSE's Nifty Auto index suffered worst one-day fall by 6.09 per cent due to the sharp fall in Ashok Leyland (-25.49 per cent), Maruti (-9.22 per cent), Bharat Forge (-12.13 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (-8.70 per cent) and Eicher Motors (-5.00 per cent).

Private banks also continued to bleed with Nifty Bank index down by 2.41 per cent, led by heavy fall in Bandhan Bank (-11.32 per cent), Axis Bank (-9.60 per cent), ICICI Bank (5.53 per cent), IndusInd Bank (-4.95 per cent). State Bank of India also fell 5.46 per cent, closing at Rs 203.45; it touched intraday low of Rs 198.15 on the NSE. sold into, analysts