Key Indian stock indices landed in negative territory on Tuesday, February 18, taking their cue from other Asian markets. Downbeat sentiment was stoked, among other things, by a warning from Apple that it might miss its earnings target for the current quarter due to the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the company, after the Lunar New Year the business has been getting back to normal more slowly than expected, with global smartphone shipments decreasing and Chinese demand falling. Notably, 73,000 coronavirus cases have been recorded to date, while the death toll exceeds 1,870. On the Nifty 50, metals and automotive names underperformed, while only the Nifty IT and the Nifty Media closed in the green, up 0.61% and 1.86%, respectively. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 retreated 0.44% to 11,992.50, and the BSE Sensex slipped 0.39% to 40,894.38. By 10:17 GMT, USD/INR advanced 0.23% to 71.488, and EUR/INR firmed 0.14% to 77.3780. The 10-year Indian government bond yield stood at 6.385%. As noted above, the session’s decliners included steelmakers. In particular, NMDC, Hindalco Industries, National Aluminum, Jindal Steel & Power and Hindustan Zinc shed 6.21%, 2.86%, 2.74%, 2.42% and 2.19%, respectively. In the automotive sector, Tata Motors, Apollo Tyres and Ashok Leyland pulled back 3.87%, 2.10% and 1.29%, respectively. Among the outperformers, TV18 Broadcast and Network18 Media & Investments stood out, spiking 14.77% and 4.87% on news that Reliance Industries intends to merge all its media and distribution businesses, including TV18 Broadcast, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Den Networks under the umbrella brand Network18. On the daily chart, the BSE Sensex continues to trade within a descending wedge, while the Slow Stochastic Oscillator has just left overbought territory. As a result, the benchmark holds downside potential in the short term.