INDIAN shares staged a smart recovery after trading was halted for 45 minutes in the morning on Friday (13) when both the Sensex and the Nifty hit the lower circuit.
Markets turned around quickly after trading resumed.
After falling more than 3,000 points in the early trade, the S&P BSE Sensex staged a smart bounce back by rallying over 1,300 points. The Nifty reclaimed 9,900 levels, staging its biggest intraday recovery since September 2019.
Investor wealth worth nearly Rs 12 trillion was wiped off in less than 15 minutes of trade opening on Friday, with benchmarks crashing over 10 per cent on mounting fears over coronavirus pandemic.
The 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 3,380.59 points, or 10.31 per cent, to 29,397.55. It hit an intra-day low of 29,388.97, falling up to 3,389.17 points.
On a weekly basis, the Sensex was down 9.2 percent, while the Nifty fell nearly 9 percent.
The week ending March 13 will go down as one of the worst weeks for Indian markets.
“This week will go down in history as one of the worst weeks for global markets. Consider this, the US market had declined 18% in just the first four days of trading. The Sensex closed 9% lower for the week but not before being locked in the lower circuit on Friday,” Sanjeev Zarbade, VP PCG Research, Kotak Securities, said.
Sectorally, the action was seen in the public sector, telecom, metal, oil & gas and banking stocks.
Hopes of stimulus measure from the US and Indian government helped the sentiment.
More than 1,300 stocks on the BSE hit a 52-week low. These included 3M India, Bosch, P&G, Polson, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki, Gillette and Bajaj Auto.
YES Bank shares ended 2 percent in the green after the cabinet approved the Draft Resolution Scheme for the bank on March 13.
The incident occurred on the same day Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer addressed the audience at London Tech WeekGetty Images