Markets see sharp recovery as trade resumes, Sensex down 1,000 points, Nifty over 9,300-mark

The benchmark equity indices on the BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) staged a sharp recovery in the morning deals on Friday after the trade resumed post a 45-minute break.

Earlier today, the Nifty and Sensex slipped to their respective lower circuits on early trade amid steep losses in the global markets due to rising concerns over coronavirus. Following this, the trade was halted for a 45-minute period.

The Nifty 50 had slipped below 9,000-mark in the early deals and touched its 10 per cent lower circuit at 8,624.05, down 966.10 points (10.07 per cent), after which the trade got suspended for a period of 45 minutes. Likewise, the S&P BSE Sensex too had crashed 3090.62 points (9.43 per cent) to 29,687.52.

After the trade resumed, the Sensex slipped by 3,389.17 points to touch in intraday low of 29,388.97 in the pre-open period post trade resumption. The Nifty too slipped touched a low of 8,555.15. However, as soon as the normal trading began at 10:20 am, both the benchmarks staged a sharp recovery At 10:36 am, the Sensex was down by just 1,062.71 points (3.24 per cent) at 31,715.43, while the Nifty was at 9,359.35, down 230.80 points (2.41 per cent).

Among the Sensex stocks, IndusInd Bank (down around 9 per cent), ONGC (down nearly 7 per cent), Nestle India (down over 6.5 per cent) and Tech Mahindra (down over 6.5 per cent) were the top losers post trade resumption in the morning deals on Friday. While Sun Pharma (up nearly 4.5 per cent), HDFC (up 0.7 per cent) and HDFC Bank (up 0.5 per cent) were the only three gainers.

Among the sectoral indices on the NSE, the Nifty IT, which was the top loser in the early deals, staged a sharp comeback recovering around 10 per cent after slipping over 13 per cent in the morning trade. The index was down nearly 3.5 per cent weighed by Just Dial, Tata Elxsi and Tech Mahindra. This apart, the Nifty FMCG was down over 1.5 per cent weighed by Godrej Industries, Godrej Consumer Products and Nestle India.

Rupee

The rupee slipped 16 paise to 74.44 against US dollar in early trade as coronavirus panic worsened.

Global market

The global stock markets crashed on Friday, ending a years-long bull run, with coronavirus panic selling hitting almost every asset class and leaving investors nowhere to hide.

Half a trillion dollars in liquidity from the US Federal Reserve and the promise of more were not enough to calm the fear that has wiped some $14 trillion from world stocks in a month.

On Friday, Japanese stocks were in freefall and markets from Seoul to Jakarta punched through downlimit circuit breakers. The Nikkei dropped as far as 10 per cent and is heading for its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Not one stock on the index is in positive territory.

Losses were equally staggering outside Japan, driving MSCI's broad Asia-Pacific index back to where it was in 2017.

Even after its worst crash since Black Monday in 1987 overnight, Dow futures are down about 3 per cent in Asia, as are S&P 500 futures.

Australia's benchmark fell as far as 8 per cent and is set for its worst week on record. In South Korea the won was shredded and the Kospi fell 7.7 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 5 per cent. China's Shanghai composite fell 3 per cent.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)