Key equity benchmarks traded near the day's low in afternoon trade amid weakness in other Asian stocks where the coronavirus outbreak sobered investor sentiment. At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 425.59 points or 1.03% at 40,631.93. The Nifty 50 index lost 131.25 points or 1.09% at 11,914.55.

In the wider market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.44%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.25%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, shares 575 rose and 1,694 shares fell. A total of 155 shares were unchanged.

Top Gainers & Losers:

BPCL (up 0.90%), Infosys (up 0.86%), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (up 0.73%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.49%) and Tech Mahindra (up 0.46%) advanced.

Bharti Infratel (down 8.60%), Yes Bank (down 8.08%), IndusInd Bank (down 4.89%), Bharti Airtel (down 3.96%) and Hindalco Industries (down 3.29%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Index heavyweight and Mukesh Ambani led-Reliance Industries (RIL) slid 0.85% to Rs 1,465.80. RIL, announced a consolidation of its media and distribution businesses spread across multiple verticals into Network18. Under the Scheme of Arrangement, TV18 Broadcast, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Den Networks will merge into Network18 Media & Investments. The appointed date for the merger was on Saturday, 1 February 2020. The broadcasting business will be housed in Network18 and the cable and ISP businesses in two separate wholly owned subsidiaries of Network18.

For every 100 shares, shareholders of TV18 Broadcast will receive 92 shares of Network 18, Hathway shareholders will get 78 shares of Network18 and Den shareholders 191 shares of Network18.

Tata Motors declined 4.14% to Rs 162.10. The auto major plans to offer rated, listed, unsecured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures amounting to Rs 500 crore in two tranches and in this regard is holding a meeting of its duly constituted Committee of the Board on Monday, 24 February 2020.

HCL Technologies fell 0.94% to Rs 607.65. The IT major announced a new large contract with New Zealand dairy co-operative Fonterra to modernise and manage the entire technology infrastructure Fonterra employees around the world use every day.

The multi-year partnership with HCL Technologies will consolidate Fonterra's technology suppliers and bring together the Co-op's IT infrastructure services under one umbrella. The technology edge services provided by HCL will enhance Fonterra's employee experience, to navigate through their business operations.

Grasim Industries dropped 1.67% to Rs 725. The firm has allotted 5,000, 6.65% fully-paid unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) worth Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 500 crore on private placement basis. These NCDs have been rated ‘AAA (Stable)' by CRISIL Ratings, it added. The debentures shall be redeemed at par at the end of the 3 years from the deemed date of allotment i.e. Monday, 17 February 2020. If it is not a business day, then as per the business day convention, the redemption date would be Friday, 17 February 2023.

JSW Steel was down 1.75%. The firm said it has emerged as preferred bidder for three iron ore mines in Odisha with an estimated reserves of 1,092 million tonnes. These three mines are Nuagaon, Narayanposhi and Ganua, the steel major informed in a regulatory filing.

In a separate announcement on Monday, JSW Steel said that the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), has by its order dated Monday, 17 February 2020, allowed the appeal of JSW Steel for acquiring Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL). According to media reports, a two-member bench headed by chairman justice S J Mukhopadhaya, said that JSW Steel will be immune from the acts done by the former promoters of BPSL. However, it also said that prosecution against the former promoters under the money laundering act by the Enforcement Directorate can continue. It has also rejected the petitions filed by operational creditors, seeking higher claims.

Hero MotoCorp lost 1.82% to Rs 2,242.75 after a foreign brokerage reportedly maintained underweight rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,143 per share.

Meanwhile the two-wheeler major on Tuesday unveiled its vision of mobility, innovation & technology at ‘Hero World 2020'. The company announced investment of Rs 10,000 crore over the next 5-7 years.

TCS rose 0.08% to Rs 2,205.05 after the IT major announced that Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), one of the largest banks in the Kingdom of SaudiArabia, has selected the TCS BaNCS Global Banking Platform to provide seamless and contextual customer experiences with a digital core. The new platform will be deployed across BSF's corporate and retail banking groups, lslamic Banking, as well as payments, and will ensure full compliance to SAMA guidelines.

Foreign Markets:

Overseas, European markets opened higher while Asian stocks fell across the board on Tuesday, as the new coronavirus outbreak continued to roil companies amid expectations it would cause a slowdown.

In Europe, HSBC said it plans to shed around 35,000 jobs as part of a radical downsizing of its operations in Europe and the US, as it warned of the threat to its business from social unrest in Hong Kong and the coronavirus outbreak.

The bank unveiled the overhaul as it reported a pre-tax loss of $3.9 billion for the fourth quarter, after taking a $7.3 billion writedown on the value of its investment and commercial banks in Europe, which it blamed on "lower long-term economic growth rate assumptions". Adjusted pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter was up 29% to $4.3 billion.

Back in Asia, China reportedly said it would accept applications for tariff exemptions from companies on U.S. goods, from March 2. That would apply to 696 American products, including pork, soybeans, crude oil and liquefied natural gas.

Apple Inc said it will not meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter as the coronavirus outbreak slowed production and weakened demand in China. Apple told investors its manufacturing facilities in China have begun to re-open but are ramping up more slowly than expected. The warning from the most valuable company in the United States turned investor cautious. Apple makes most of its iPhones and products in China.

US financial markets were closed on Monday, in observance of Presidents Day.