The domestic stock market witnessed a sharp rally on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced a slew of measures to support the economy in the wake of Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The central bank slashed reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent. It also announced special refinance facility of Rs 15,000 crore to SIDBI; Rs 25,000 crore to NABARD, and Rs 10,000 cr to HFCs to support liquidity.
Reacting to it, financial stocks made solid gains, thus aiding the benchmark indices settle over 3 per cent higher. The S&P BSE Sensex surged 986 points or 3.22 per cent to end at 31,588.72, with Axis Bank (up nearly 13.5 per cent) being the top gainer. ICICI Bank (up 10 per cent), IndusInd Bank (up 9 per cent), and Maruti (up 7 per cent) were next on the list.
On the NSE, the Nifty gained 274 points or 3.05 per cent to end at 9,266.75. Volatility index, India VIX, continued to cool-off. It slipped 7.71 per cent to 42.54 levels.
Among sectoral indices on the NSE, Nifty Bank jumped a whopping 1,343 points or around 7 per cent to 20,743 levels, with all the 12 constituents ending in the green. Nifty Auto advanced around 5.5 per cent to 5,688.60 levels.
On the other hand, Nifty FMCG slipped 1 per cent to 29,201 while Nifty Pharma slipped nearly half a per cent to 9,159 levels.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained over 2 per cent to 11,824 and the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended at 10,801, up around 2.5 per cent.
Global markets
World stock markets made a super-charged sprint towards an 11 per cent weekly gain on Friday - their second best of all time - after President Donald Trump laid out plans to gradually reopen the coronavirus-hit US economy following similar moves elsewhere.
Additional reports that patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms had responded positively to a drug made by US company Gilead Sciences had helped Tokyo and Seoul both surge 3 per cent as Asia took a widely-expected slump in Chinese GDP data in its stride.
European markets also traded in the green.
In oil market, oil prices fell, giving up early gains as China’s worst economic contraction on record outweighed news of US President Donald Trump’s plans to get the American economy moving again. Brent was down by 10 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $27.72 a barrel while US crude CLc1 for May delivery tumbled by $1.54, or 7.8 per cent, to $18.33.
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