Indian equity, money and commodity markets will remain closed on Monday on account of Mahavir Jayanti. The markets will reopen on Tuesday on usual timings.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

On Friday, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended the day on a bearish note triggered by nationwide lockdown across the country owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The 30-share index BSE Sensex fell 2.4% or 674 points lower ending at 27,590.95 while the broader market NSE Nifty fell by 2% or 170 points to end the day at 8,083.80.

Meanwhile among the global markets, US stock futures rose 3.2% during Asian trading after US President Donald Trump expressed hope the country was seeing a "levelling off" of the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported.

Futures for London`s FTSE were up 1.7% while those for Eurostoxx 50 gained 2.6%. In Asia, Australia`s benchmark index rose 3.3%, Japan`s Nikkei added 2.4% after a slow start while South Korea`s KOSPI index climbed 2.1%. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index was 0.9% higher, the agency reported.

That sent MSCI`s broadest index of Asian shares outside of Japan up almost 1%, on track for its best performance in a week. Markets in mainland China were closed for a public holiday.

In an unprecedented move on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut market trading hours for both bonds and foreign exchange to four hours, citing possible operational and logistical risks arising from the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"These arrangements will become effective from April 7, 2020 (Tuesday) and continue up to April 17, 2020 (Friday)," the RBI release said. The debt and currency market timings are between 9 am and 5 pm.

The decision will be reviewed on April 17.

The move comes in the wake of Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi's relentless campaign to reduce market trading hours to protect investors.

While lauding the RBI decision, Anil Singhvi said that he expects the RBI to reduce the timing of the equity markets as well, to prevent further deterioration of investors income.

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

In India, coronavirus cases continued to rise despite a complete lockdown. As per the information available on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the number of active coronavirus disease cases were 3666 with 109 people succumbing to it. the number of people who have completely cured from it stands at 291.