Tracking gains in global stocks, Indian equity markets also accelerated on Friday as hopes of stimulus to businesses battered by the coronavirus outbreak rose. The BSE Sensex was up 1,242 points or 4.4 per cent at 29,530.67 level in afternoon trading. The wider NSE Nifty 50 was trading at 8,649.75 points, up 4.7 per cent or 386 points.
Friday’s gains come on the back of sharp losses seen across world markets as the number of coronavirus cases continued to rise. In the last four sessions to Thursday, the Sensex had tanked 17 per cent.
According to the latest figures from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of COVID-19 cases have now touched 206 in India. An Italian died in Jaipur on Friday, taking the total number of deaths in the country due to the pandemic to four.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to hold a meeting with ministers from aviation, tourism, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSEMs), and animal husbandry departments later in the day, to take a stock of the impact the outbreak has had and work out a financial package.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the country on Thursday night had announced that an economic response taskforce had been set up to look into the economic fallout.
Of the 30-share Sensex, 27 stocks were trading higher in the afternoon. Oil stocks were among the major gainers with ONGC up over 13 per cent and Reliance gaining 7 per cent, aided by a rebound in crude oil prices. Tech stocks were also sharply higher with TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra, all up between 9 per cent to 11 per cent, after Accenture reported strong quarterly growth, although it slashed full-year revenue guidance to a range of 3-6 per cent from 6-8 per cent.
“It should be noted that the (Accenture) downgrade was driven more by the consulting segment, rather than outsourcing (which is more relevant to Indian IT),” said a report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services, which also noted that the company’s 22 per cent rise in new bookings, was “impressive” given nearly two-months of disruption due to COVID-19 outbreak.
In Asian Markets, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average declined 1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.5 per cent, Korea’s Kospi surged 7 per cent and Taiwan Weighted Index was up 6 per cent.
