Markets fall below Budget Day low, Auto index tanks 2%

Indian markets along with global indices fell sharply on Wednesday as Coronavirus pandemic fears deepened. Sensex and Nifty fell nearly 1 per cent even below the Budget Day lows.

The Sensex closed below the 40,000-mark while the Nifty settled at 11,678.50, lower by 119.40 points. The sell-off was led by metal and auto stocks. The Nifty metal index closed 1.63 per cent lower while the Nifty auto index fell over 2 per cent.

Santosh Meena, Senior Research Analyst, TradinBells, said :"The mayhem in equity markets has continued around the globe due to rising worries of coronavirus. There is a vertical fall in equity markets as investors are coming out of risky assets where US 10-year Treasury yield is falling because of the demand for a safe haven."

"Uncertainty regarding coronavirus will continue to impact the equity markets while the February series expiry may cause volatility in tomorrow's trading session," he added.

Moody's investors service on Wednesday said that a global recession is likely if coronavirus becomes a pandemic, and the odds of that are uncomfortably high and rising with infections surging in Italy and Korea.

"Increasing concern regarding coronavirus in the world is impacting the global market. The economic impact is expected to be worse than thought earlier forcing investors to stay away from risky assets.

Besides investors mood were dampened ahead of the release of GDP growth data.IANS