Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure throughout the day, tracking weakness in global peers amid heightened worries of COVID-19 virus outbreak.

Global stock markets were lower today after doubts were raised over the treatment for coronavirus. The first full trial of potential coronavirus vaccine of antiviral medication Remdesivir failed to show any effects.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector, finance sector and banking sector witnessing selling pressure, while energy stocks ended in green.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 536 points, while the NSE Nifty closed down by 160 points.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down by 1.8%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 1.4%.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 0.6% while the Nikkei was down 0.9%. The Shanghai Composite stood lower by 1.1%.

The rupee was trading at 76.38 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.8% at Rs 46,788 per 10 grams.

Extending gains to the third day, domestic gold prices inched higher today, ahead of Akshaya Tritiya as investors rushed to safety amid lockdown and fast-spreading coronavirus.

Last year on Akshaya Tritiya, around 33-35 tons of gold was sold. However, according to reports, due to coronavirus-led lockdown, India has just imported 25 tonnes of gold in the month of March, against around 94 tonnes last year.

Last week, prices went on to hit a record high, rising above the Rs 47,000-mark, tracking global rates.

Gold prices have jumped nearly 18% from their recent lows of Rs 38,400 per 10 grams hit on March 16, 2020.

In one of his recent videos, Vijay Bhambwani explains why gold prices will go higher in the coming days.

Also, speaking of gold, you will be surprised to know that the safe haven has outperformed equities over a 15-year period.

Have a look at the chart below:

An equal amount of Rs 100 invested in both gold and Sensex in 2004 would have generated higher returns in gold by a wide margin.

Your total investment in gold and Sensex would be valued at Rs 687 and Rs 410, respectively.

So, investors in gold are happier than investors in Sensex or equities at this moment.

Moving on, market participants were tracking Mindtree share price as the company announced its March quarter results (Q4FY20) today.

You can read our recently released Q4FY20 results of other companies here: Wipro, TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Elxsi, ACC, CRISIL.

In news from the finance sector, shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), housing finance companies, micro finance institutions, and assets management companies (AMCs) were under pressure today after Franklin Mutual Fund (MF) shut 6 of its debt schemes over redemption pressure and liquidity crunch.

Shares of Nippon Life India Asset Management, Cholamandalam Investment, Ujjivan Financial Services, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Bajaj Finance and LIC Housing ended down in the range of 9-16%.

According to industry sources, Franklin Templeton MF had over Rs 30 billion of borrowing.

Investors will no longer be allowed to make fresh purchases or sales from these funds. The systematic plans, including systematic investment plans, systematic transfer plans and systematic withdrawal plans will also be suspended.

In other news from the finance space, foreign institutional investors have cut their stake in majority of large-cap financials during January-March quarter.

FPIs reduced their holdings in HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India (SBI) and Bandhan Bank in the range of 1-3%, during the quarter.

Note that, the BSE Sensex reported its sharpest quarterly fall during the same period. The broader NSE Nifty also recorded its sharpest quarterly fall since the June 1992 quarter.

Moving on to news from the pharma sector, Alembic Pharma share price was in focus today.

The company's consolidated profit before tax (PBT) more than doubled to Rs 3 billion in Q4FY20 on the back of healthy revenues. The drug maker had a PBT of Rs 1.4 billion during the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

The company's total revenue during the quarter under review grew 30% year-on-year at Rs 12.1 billion against Rs 9.3 billion in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

The company's management said this is the highest ever revenue and profit for a financial year. This was led by strong growth in the US generics business.

Stock of the company rose over 15% today, to hit its all-time high.

Apart from Alembic Pharma, Sun Pharma and Laurus Labs also hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Speaking of the pharma sector, in December 2019, co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee had predicted that pharma could be the sector to see a big rebound in 2020.

And rightly so, most pharma companies have re-emerged as the safer bets for investors in the ongoing market turmoil. The Indian rupee touched a new record low of Rs 76.92 against the US dollar this week. Most pharma companies generate their revenues through exports. Hence, a depreciating rupee is a positive development for them.