Indian stock markets fall at open as covid cases continue to climb

22 Apr , 2021 By : Kanchan Joshi

MUMBAI: Indian equity markets slumped nearly 1% at open on Thursday after the Maharashtra government announced stricter restrictions amid the continued surge in covid cases.

At 09:30am, the benchmark Sensex fell 1% to 47,333, while Nifty dropped 0.9% to 14,200.

India reported nearly 3.16 lakh fresh cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day jump in any country so far. Deaths from the virus climbed to another high of 2,102 in the past 24 hours.

Maharashtra will on Thursday implement fresh restrictions given the rising cases in the state. The restrictions, in place till May 1, come amid projections of active cases rising to over 1.1 million by 2 May.

"Domestic equities do not look to be encouraging as of now. A persistent rise in COVID-19 cases across the country and enhanced mobility restrictions imposed by a number of states are expected to remain as key drags for the market. This has certainly started posing as a big threat for corporate earnings recovery. Notably, the possibility of supply disruption and increased COVID-19 cases in the hinterland area can further hurt economic momentum," said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

The Serum Institute of India on Wednesday said it will sell the AstraZeneca vaccine to the country's state governments at 400 rupees ($5.30) per dose and to private hospitals at 600 rupees ($7.95).

"We believe the market is expected to remain volatile until we see a reversal in COVID-19 cases. Given enhanced economic restrictions imposed by states and government’s continued focus to increase supply of vaccines and allowing vaccines at private hospitals should be able to check the spread of coronavirus in coming weeks," Modi said.