Weakness persisted over the Dalal Street for the 5th straight day on Thursday, amid rising fears of the coronavirus outbreak. After a negative start, indices remained lackluster throughout the day, amid a private report that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth will stay flat at 4.5 per cent in the October-December 2019. It also said that India faces the risk of getting impacted by coronavirus epidemic economically because of its high reliance on Chinese imports for various goods. Traders also remained cautious with reports that foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,336.60 crore on February 26, however domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 2,785.67 crore on the same day. However, in the second half of the trading day, key benchmarks trimmed most of their losses to end the session off day's low points. Recovery in the markets was on the back of the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman's statement that the government is keeping a close watch on the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the Indian economy and various options are being gauged at various levels. Some support also came amid reports that India added more than three dollar billionaires every month in 2019, taking the tally to 138 that has helped the country to feature at the third position globally. China and the US occupied the first and second spot with 799 and 626 billionaires, respectively. Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 143.30 points or 0.36% to 39,745.66, while the CNX Nifty was down by 45.20 points or 0.39% to 11,633.30.

The US markets settled lower deeply in red on Thursday taking benchmark indexes into correction territory and to the lowest levels since October, as the global coronavirus epidemic disrupted international trade and travel. Investors' sentiment took another hit when California's governor said 8,400 people were being monitored after travelling to China. World Health Organization said that the outbreak has the potential to become a pandemic and is at a decisive stage. The latest slide began after a news conference by President Donald Trump failed to reassure investors and more new cases of the disease were reported outside China than inside for the first time. The global economy is on course for its weakest year since the 2008 financial crisis as efforts to contain epidemic has hit manufacturing activity in China. On the economic data front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed the pace of US economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2019 was unrevised from the initial estimate. The Commerce Department said real gross domestic product increased by 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the estimate provided last month and in line with street estimates. Meanwhile, first-time claims for US unemployment benefits climbed by more than expected in the week ended February 22nd, according to a report released by the Labor Department. The report said initial jobless claims rose to 219,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised level of 211,000. 

Crude oil futures ended lower for fifth consecutive session on Thursday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. The coronavirus has reportedly spread to over 50 countries. The spread of the virus to large economies including South Korea, Japan and Italy has raised concerns that growth in fuel demand will be limited. Officials are scrambling to contain the outbreak in Italy, which has reported 12 deaths and 400 confirmed cases in Europe's worst outbreak of the virus. More than 18 cases of the virus have been confirmed in both Germany and France, while two French patients have died from the disease. Meanwhile, the US Energy Information Administration reported that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 143 billion cubic feet for the week ended February 21. Crude oil futures for April fell $1.64 or 3.4 percent to settle at 47.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude dropped $1.25 or 2.3 percent to settle at $52.18 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar for third day in a row on Thursday, as bankers and exporters took to selling of American currency. Market participants took some support with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman's statement that the government is keeping a close watch on the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the Indian economy and various options are being gauged at various levels. The US dollar's weakness against its key rivals overseas also strengthened forex market sentiment. However, gains remain capped as anxiety remained among the traders with a private report that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth will stay flat at 4.5 per cent in the October-December 2019. It also said that India faces the risk of getting impacted by coronavirus epidemic economically because of its high reliance on Chinese imports for various goods. On the global front, dollar fell on Thursday as Treasury yields continued to plumb new lows and investors bet the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates to offset the impact of a spreading coronavirus. The last traded price of rupee was 71.58, 7 paise stronger from its previous close of 71.65 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5824.71 crore against gross selling of Rs 8957.03 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 863.55 crore with gross sales of Rs 3080.58 crore. In the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 1918.09 crore against gross selling of Rs 4.32 crore.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday amid investors' fears that global efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus were failing. Asian markets are trading in red in early deals on Friday as fears about the novel coronavirus continue to spur a global sell-off. Indian markets recovered from day's lows but settled below neutral lines on Thursday amid growing concerns of the novel coronavirus infection spreading outside China. Today, the markets are likely to extend their losing streak with gap-down opening following heavy sell-off in the global markets as coronavirus worries mounted. Infections topped 2,000 in South Korea. Japan has about 200 confirmed cases of the pneumonia-causing virus, excluding those that erupted on the Diamond Princess. Industry body PHDCCI said that the coronavirus outbreak may negatively impact global growth by 30 basis points or $250 billion. On the domestic front, there will be some cautiousness with the Association of Indian Forging Industry's (AIFI) statement that disruption in supplies due to the coronavirus outbreak in China has hit domestic forging industry along with automobile and auto component manufacturing sectors. Investors also await the GDP numbers for the third quarter of FY20 to be released later in the day. Rating agency ICRA expects the growth of the Indian GDP and the gross value added (GVA) at basic prices in year-on-year (Y-o-Y) terms to rise mildly to 4.7% and 4.5%, respectively, in Q3 FY2020, from 4.5% and 4.3%, respectively, in Q2 FY2020. Though, traders may take note of the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to the Narendra Modi government Krishnamurthy V Subramanian's statement that the slowdown in the economy that has lasted for 13 quarters as part of a business cycle. He expressed hope that the economic slowdown is bottoming out and the recovery is not too far ahead. There will be some buzz in the sugar stocks with a private report that sugar exports from India are likely to pick up with Indonesia showing interest in importing 1.3 million tonnes by May. Metal stocks will be in focus as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its outlook on the steel sector from stable-to-negative to negative for FY2021-21. The revision has been made seeing the steel demand growth expectations of 5 per cent and margin pressures led by iron ore price risks. There will be some reaction in aviation stocks with ICRA's report that the outlook for India's aviation industry remains negative in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, which has resulted in many international passengers cancelling their travel to South East Asian countries. 

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary company Namely Adani Bangladesh Ports in Bangladesh.
• Bharti Airtel has introduced yet another innovation to transform the International Roaming experience for its mobile customers, as part of its mission to build the most customer centric experience platform. 
• NTPC has signed an agreement with CPCB to provide financial support for installation & commissioning of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations. 
• Reiterating its commitment to an exciting and comprehensive BS-VI product portfolio, Hero MotoCorp has launched the iconic Super Splendor in its BS-VI version.