Stocks may open weak on negative Asian stocks

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could plummet 416 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian stocks were slammed on Monday and the dollar battered after emergency rate cuts in the United States and New Zealand, and a raft of steps by policymakers worldwide failed to stem the rout in markets spooked by the broadening fallout of the coronavirus.

The Federal Reserve on Sunday said it would cut its key interest rate nearly to zero, buy hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds to provide more liquidity to the financial market, ease reserve requirements on banks, and lower the cost of borrowing from the central bank in a series of efforts to ward off the economic dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcements, which came as Asian markets prepared to open on Monday, are seen as an indication of the Fed's worry about the economy as COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, leads to widespread disruption. The Fed had previously cut its benchmark federal funds rate by half a percentage point less than two weeks ago. Both rate moves came outside of a scheduled Fed monetary policy meeting.

In US, stocks booked one of their biggest daily gains on Friday after President Trump declared a national emergency to combat the coronavirus epidemic, a day after the Dow and the S&P 500 index suffered their biggest one-day plunge since the October 1987 crash.

The national emergency declaration unleashes $50 billion of funds to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic, but financial market conditions are expected to remain volatile in the wake of this week's global market carnage.

Back home, the domestic stock market ended with robust gains on Friday, as value buying emerged after the benchmark indices hit lower circuit limit in opening deals. The S&P BSE Sensex, surged 1,325.34 points or 4.04% at 34,103.48. The Nifty 50 index spurted 365.05 points or 3.81% at 9,955.20. Trading was halted in early session after benchmark indices dropped by 10% to hit the lower circuit.

The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 6027.58 crore on Friday, 13 March 2020, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 5867.90 crore, on Friday, 13 March 2020, as per provisional data.

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