Market slides for 2nd day; Sensex falls 173 pts to end 39,750 & Nifty slips 59 pts to 11,671

Equity benchmarks on Thursday, October 29, 2020, fell around half a per cent in sync with Asian peers. The BSE 30-share index, Sensex lost 172.61 points or 0.43 per cent to settle at 39,749.85. The NSE Nifty-50 index also slipped 58.80 points or 0.5 per cent to settle at 11,670.80. The Nifty Bank lost 140.50 points, or 0.58 per cent, to end at 24,092.

The broader market at BSE also declined. The BSE Mid-Cap closed almost flat and the BSE Small-Cap index depreciated 0.55 per cent.

Trading was volatile as the October 2020 F&O contracts expired today. Barring the Nifty IT index, all other sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the red.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1029 shares rose and 1560 shares fell. A total of 187 shares were unchanged. Similarly, 16 shares advanced in Nifty 50 and 34 declined. The major gainers on the Nifty block were Asian Paint (up 3.02 per cent), Tech Mahindra (up 2.24 per cent), UltraTech Cement (up 1.81 per cent), Shree Cement (up 1.40 per cent) and HCL Technologies (up 1.14 per cent). The top losers were L&T (down 4.85 per cent), Titan (down 3.29 per cent), Adani Ports (down 2.97 per cent), ONGC (down 2.79 per cent) and Axis Bank (down 2.32 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 4,44,83,775 with 11,74,053 deaths. India reported 6,03,687 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,20,527 deaths while 73,15,989 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The French government imposed nationwide restrictions until December 1, 2020, while German officials agreed to a four-week partial lockdown. In the case of the US, the state of Illinois has ordered Chicago to shut down indoor dining. The British government is also under pressure to tighten restrictions with cases doubling every nine days.

Bank of Japan's forecasts

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Thursday trimmed its economic and price forecasts for the current fiscal year but offered a more upbeat view on the recovery outlook, signalling that it has delivered enough stimulus for the time being. The central bank, however, warned the outlook was highly uncertain as the pandemic weighs on service-sector spending and a resurgence of infections in Europe dampen prospects for a sustained global recovery.

As widely expected, the central bank kept monetary policy steady, including a -0.1 per cent target for short-term interest rates and a pledge to guide long-term rates around 0 per cent. The BoJ also made no changes to a package of steps aimed at easing corporate funding strains, which has become its primary tool to deal with the pandemic-stricken economy. BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference to explain the decision. In a quarterly report on the outlook, the BoJ trimmed its growth forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 2021 to a 5.5 per cent contraction from a 4.7 per cent slump projected in July, reflecting sluggish service spending during the summer. It also downgraded this fiscal year's core consumer price forecast to a 0.6 per cent fall.