Sensex down 1068 points to close at 30,028 points, Nifty down 313 points

New Delhi, 18 May 2020 Monday

The Sensex fell below 30,000 today on the back of erosion in banking sector stocks. The BSE index fell to a low of 29,968.45 today, although the Sensex recovered slightly later to close at 30,068 with a loss of 1,028 points.

The NSE Nifty also closed at 8823 with a fall of 313.60 points or 3.43. Banking stocks saw a sharp decline. As a result, the Bank Nifty fell 6.69% to a low of 1800,

However, one of the reasons for the crash in banking stocks is that the finance minister has banned bankruptcy proceedings in the details of the relief package. Banking stocks have seen a sharp washout today following the IBC's rule change. All the 12 stocks in the index are in the negative zone.

The Modi government's Rs 20 lakh crore package has disappointed investors, although the market initially saw a rally, today the BSE Sensex opened at 150.53 points and the Nifty at 21.45 points, but it was a momentary rally, later both indexes hit the red mark.

The rupee fell 33 paise to close at 75.91 against the US dollar, although gold hit a new record high of 47,500 on the MCX.

Along with heavyweights, small and medium-sized stocks have also suffered heavy losses. The BSE Midcap Index is down 3.77% and the Smallcap Index is down 2.94%. At the BSE, 1533 stocks rose, 422 stocks declined and 127 stocks remained unchanged. 109 stocks have upper and 232 stocks have lower circuit.

Looking at the sectoral indices, BSE Bankcase fell the most at 6.17% while auto and realty declined 4.50%. The only IT index that tries to provide support. According to TCS and Infosys, the IT index is up 1.5 per cent.

Defense stocks rise up to 10 percent

Defense-related companies rose 10 per cent early on Monday, with the government saying it would allow 74 per cent FDI through the automatic route to ease foreign capital investment rules in the defense sector, followed by a sharp rise in defense sector companies.