By Aditya Raghunath
Investing.com -- It was a bloodbath in the markets today as equity markets everywhere bled red as the world took stock of a new mutation in the COVID-19 virus in the UK. Nifty closed down 432.1 points or 3.14% at 13,328.4. The BSE Sensex ended 1,406.73 points or 3% lower at 45,553.96.
All Nifty stocks dropped today. Tata Motors (NS:TAMO) lost 9.53% while ONGC (NS:ONGC) dropped 9.44%. GAIL (NS:GAIL) lost 8.44% and IndusInd Bank (NS:INBK) lost almost 8% in the melee today. All sectoral indices closed down with the metal index closing down 5.54%. Nifty Auto was the next worst at 4.62% followed by Bank Nifty at 4.1%. NALCO lost almost 11%, Vedanta Ltd (NS:VDAN) dropped 10.55% and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (NS:JNSP) lost 7.85%.
The new strain of the virus has caused the UK to effectively cancel Christmas. The EU has put a travel ban on the UK in order to prevent the new strain from spreading. Countries from other parts of the world are following suit. In Europe, FTSE is trading down 2.46%, CAC 40 is down 3% and DAX is down 3.07%.
Dow Futures are down 1.14% while S&P 500 Futures and Nasdaq 100 Futures are down 1.39% and 0.69% respectively. U.S. lawmakers finally approved a $900 billion relief package that includes $600 checks to households, and a $300 weekly enhancement for federal unemployment benefits for 11 weeks.
It also extends a moratorium on evictions that were due to expire at the end of the year. As such, it covers the eventualities that had the greatest potential to undermine household spending through the winter.
Crude oil dropped over 5.4% and is now trading at $46.44. If the new mutation is even half as bad as the original strain, the pain for oil could begin all over again.