Stand up bulls: Markets to recover from last weeks severe crash

Last week, Indian markets became a victim to Coronavirus outbreak across the world. Nifty declined 7.3 per cent during the week and it was the highest weekly decline since the global financial crisis. However, with the start of a new month, there seems to be a little respite in sight for the markets as SGX Nifty is reflecting a gap-up start of almost one per cent. The market participants would love to see a green day as it was last seen on February 19 and thereafter, Nifty has closed lower for the sixth straight session. The talk of the town-IPO i.e. SBI Card IPO will open for subscription today. Furthermore, the market participants will track the outcome of India Manufacturing PMI, which is scheduled to release today.

Markets in Asia mostly started lower on Monday but almost all major indices reversed earlier losses and were trading in a positive territory. China’s Shanghai Composite has surged 1.63 per cent and leading the way followed by Japan’s Nikkei 225 which was up 0.99 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.62 per cent, respectively.

Back home, the markets witnessed a bloodbath on Friday as shares across the sectors tumbled since Coronavirus has now spread to many countries across the world and there is a fear that the new outbreak is likely to take a toll on the global growth. For the day, Nifty plummeted 3.71 per cent and BSE Sensex lost 3.64 per cent. On weekly basis, Nifty crashed about 7.28 per cent and BSE Sensex fell nearly seven per cent. The broader markets-Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap plunged 3.27 and 3.83 per cent, respectively. There was a huge sell off in all the sectors, wherein Nifty Metal, Nifty IT and Nifty Media were the biggest losers.

As for global happenings, US markets opened to steep losses on Friday as Coronavirus panic set Wall Street tumbling. However, the markets pared some losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank will take measures to support the market and that Fed may work in conjunction with other global central banks. At the closing bell, tech-heavy Nasdaq ended above neutral line, while Dow dropped 1.4 per cent and S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent. European indices ended the week with steep losses as Coronavirus infection spread exacerbating fear of a global slowdown.