India’s Sensex drops as virus adds to woes

Bloomberg

India’s stock benchmark declined for a fourth straight day, with disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak clouding the outlook for an economy already facing its weakest expansion in 11 years.
The S&P BSE Sensex Index fell 0.4% to close at 40,894.38 in Mumbai, its longest losing streak in more than four months, after sliding as much as 1.1%.
The NSE Nifty 50 Index retreated by the same magnitude. Most markets in Asia fell, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index losing 1.1%.
The S&P BSE PSU Index, a gauge of India’s 63 state-run companies, erased losses following bunched trades in some of its biggest contributors including Coal India Ltd, Oil & Natural Gas Corp and Power Grid Corp of India Ltd.
India, the world’s second-most populous nation, is facing the ripple effects of virus-related factory shutdowns in China causing supply chain disruptions. Quarterly profit at more than half of Nifty 50 companies missed estimates in the latest reporting season, while India’s central bank has begun injecting funds into the financial system to try to boost lending.
The China shutdown is having an impact “across the globe and now even in India,” said AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd. “That’s the market’s fear today.”
Fifteen of the 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd fell, led by a gauge of telecom companies.