Strong Recovery After Bloodbath On Dalal St

Indian stock markets staged a strong recovery on Friday, after witnessing bloodbath just a day earlier. BSE Sensex closed at 34,103—1,325 points higher while Nifty ended 433 points higher at 10,023.

However, minutes after opening, trading had to be halted for about 45 minutes after the headline indices hit their 10 per cent lower circuit limits.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India issued a statement saying that a robust risk management framework was in place, which automatically gets triggered in response to movements in the headline indices as well as individual stocks both in cash and derivatives market.

The top gainers included the State Bank of India and HDFC, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, and ICICI Bank.

Meanwhile the US and European stock markets also showed some signs of recovery after huge losses.

Sebi said that the Indian stock markets have been moving in tandem with other global markets owing to concerns relating to the Covid-19 pandemic resultant fear of economic slowdown and recent fall in global crude prices.

Meanwhile governments and central banks across the globe are keeping a close watch on the situation and are gearing up for emergency measures to arrest the economic impacts arising out of the deadly disease, which has killed over 1,000 people.

The Asian Development Bank has estimated an overall global financial loss between $77 billion and $347 billion. The multilateral agency could also reduce the gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.1-0.4 per cent for the current year. The magnitude of the economic losses will depend on how the outbreak evolves, which remains highly uncertain, the ADB said in a statement. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD has already slashed growth projection for the world economy in 2020 from 2.9 per cent made in November to 2.4 per cent..