Indian share markets witnessed heavy selling pressure throughout the day and ended deep in the red.
Benchmark indices fell further in the afternoon session as investors booked profits after witnessing a massive selloff on Wall Street.
The Nasdaq plunged 5% overnight and the S&P 500 fell 3.5%. Those were the steepest Wall Street losses since June, but traders said a correction was overdue given recent frothy gains.
A fast rise in COVID-19 cases and further contraction in services output also kept investors worried.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 634 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended down by 170 points.
SGX Nifty was trading at 11,375, down by 168 points, at the time of writing.
The BSE Mid Cap index ended down by 1.7%. The BSE Small Cap index ended down by 1.1%.
All sectoral indices ended on a negative note. Metal stocks and power stocks were among the hardest hit.
Asian stock markets ended deep in the red. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 0.8% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.9%. The Nikkei closed lower by 1.1%.
Moving on, the rupee is trading at 73.14 against the US$.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 50,836 per 10 grams.
Gold prices rose in early trade today, tracking the global trend in precious metals.
In news from the finance sector, CreditAccess Grameen was among the top buzzing stocks today.
Shares of the company rallied as much as 9% today after the company announced that its board has approved Rs 10 billion fundraising plans.
In an exchange filing, the company said its board of directors has approved the issue of equity shares by way of permissible mode(s) up to an amount not exceeding Rs 10 billion.
The company has called an extraordinary general body meeting on September 26, 2020, to take shareholders' approval.
The company also shared its business update for the month of August, where it said that loans under moratorium are down to 18% in August from 24% in July.
The company's collection efficiency improved to 82% in August from 76% in July.
Disbursements in August stood at Rs 4.84 billion in August although disbursements were made only to those customers making on-time payments.
Credit Access Grameen share price ended the day up by 2%.
Moving on to news from the automobile sector, auto stocks were trading higher today amid reports that the industry has requested the government to put on hold the next generation emission norms that kick in from 2022.
The BSE auto index gained as much as 1% intraday today, before paring gains, after the heavy industry minister said that the auto industry will get some important concessions.
Maruti Suzuki was the top gainer in the BSE auto index, rising over 3%, followed by Bharat Forge, Ashok Leyland, and Amara Raja Batteries.
Other gainers included Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, Bosch, and TVS Motor Company.
On Thursday, Tata Motors reported a 13.4% increase in total sales at 36,472 units in August. The company had sold a total of 32,166 units in the same period last year.
In other news, Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa today said that the automobile industry is in its historically most challenging situation ever and needs to think about how to boost demand for the festive season.
Even if the government reduces taxes, the corresponding increase in sales will offset any losses for the exchequer and the overall tax collection will be higher, Ayukawa said at the 2020 SIAM Annual Convention.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera said that even if the measures are put in place to boost demand, we are expecting the industry to return at its peak volume levels of 2018-19 only by 2023.
Earlier this week, Maruti Suzuki had reported a 21.7% rise in domestic sales to 1,15,325 units in August 2020.
Speaking of the automobile sector, note that the sector has rebounded sharply from its March lows.
Have a look at the chart below:
The Healthcare sector is at the top, followed by the automobile sector.
As per Apurva Sheth, the auto index entered the greed phase in September 2019 and will stay there until December 2021. This means there is still a lot of fuel left for auto stocks.
How automobile stocks perform in the coming months remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more updates from this space.
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