The last hour sell-off dragged the headline indices Sensex and Nifty 5.5 per cent and 4.75 per cent, respectively. S&P BSE Sensex plunged 1,707 points or 5.59 per cent at 28,868 while the broader Nifty 50 index slipped below the crucial 8,550 level to settle at 8,541 points. “The frontline indexes were down by close to 5.50 per cent , in a market hit by the likely adverse impact of the pandemic, at a time when it was negotiating a critical juncture in the already existing economic sluggishness. Markets will continue to mirror the developments overseas till some comfort on the spread of the pandemic is received. It is too early to say when the feeling that the asset prices are lower than their intrinsic value would start coming in,” Joseph Thomas, Head of Research – Emkay Wealth Management said.

What dragged Sensex, Nifty to 3-year low levels-

Sensex ends below 29,000-mark- During the day, Sensex hit an intraday low of 28,613 for the first time since March 10, 2017. The broader Nifty 50 index declined to 8,407 points to hit day’s low in today’s session.

ONGC, SBI only Sensex gainers- As many as 28 stocks out of 30 Sensex stocks ended in red today with IndusInd Bank as top loser, down 24 per cent, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid. While ONGC jumped 9 per cent to become top Sensex gainer, followed by SBI.

Nifty Media index only sectoral gainer– All the sectoral indices finished in deep sea of red, except Nifty Media index. Nifty Private Bank index dropped nearly 7 per cent as they have huge exposure to telecom firms. Similarly, Nifty Bank index settled 5.87 per cent or 1,301 points lower dragged by IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank.

276 Indian infected from COVID-19 abroad- As many as 276 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, including 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE and five in Italy, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

SC slams telcos on self-assessment of AGR dues- The Supreme Court has made it clear that the troubled telecom sector is not getting any relief on the AGR dues. It slammed self-assessment done by telecom companies despite the court order earlier mentioning the dues. “Supreme court not providing any respite to Telecom players, the banking stocks which have exposure to the telecom sector were most impacted today. Nifty bank Index fell by around 7%,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said.