Sensex tumbles over 500 points, Nifty goes below 9,200 due to mixed global cues

• The 30-share index Sensex was trading 534.23 points or 1.68% down at 31,328.85.
  
• The NSE Nifty declined 129.35 points, or 1.39%, to 9,184.55.
  
• US equities closed mixed, giving up most of their earlier gains, after more data showed the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world's largest economy.
  

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 500 points in early trade on Friday dragged by losses in banking and IT stocks amid weak cues from global markets. After hitting a low of 31,278.27, the 30-share index was trading 534.23 points or 1.68% down at 31,328.85.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 129.35 points, or 1.39%, to 9,184.55.

Bajaj Finance was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding up to 5%, followed by ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC twins, SBI, Infosys and TCS.

On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, L&T, ONGC and HCL Tech were among the gainers.

In the previous session, the BSE barometer surged 483.53 points or 1.54% to close at 31,863.08, and the broader Nifty advanced 126.60 points, or 1.38%, to settle at 9,313.90.

Foreign portfolio investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday, as they offloaded equity shares worth Rs 114.58 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Domestic market opened on a negative note as global stocks slumped amid projections of severe coronavirus-led blow to the global economy, traders said.

Fitch Ratings has slashed India's economic growth projection to 0.8% in the current 2020-21 fiscal, saying an unparalleled global recession was underway due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The agency has further made large cuts to global GDP forecasts. Global economic growth is now expected to fall by 3.9% in 2020, a recession of unprecedented depth in the post-war period.

This would be twice as severe as the 2009 recession, it noted.

Global Cues

US equities closed mixed, giving up most of their earlier gains, after more data showed the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world's largest economy.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.44 points, or 0.17% , to 23,515.26. The S&P 500 fell 1.51 points, or 0.05%, to 2,797.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.63 points, or 0.01%, to 8,494.75.

The 30-stock index rallied more than 400 points earlier in the session, while both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were up more than 1%.

On the data front, US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 4.427 million in the week ending April 18, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. That brought the total number of claimants in the past five weeks to more than 26 million amid the COVID-19 fallout.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with losses in early deals.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 5.91% to USD 22.59 per barrel.

Further, reports on Thursday said a potential antiviral drug flopped in a clinical trial, citing documents published accidentally by the World Health Organisation.

In India, the death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 718, while the number of cases in the country climbed to 23,077.

Global tally of the infections has crossed 27 lakh, with over 1.90 lakh deaths.
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