Govt, RBI closely monitoring: FM on market volatility over Coronavirus

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government and the Reserve Bank are closely monitoring the stock market, which is facing intense volatility amid mounting coronavirus fears.

Together with the RBI, the government is closely monitoring markets, she said on the situation arising out of a panic spread of coronavirus pandemic.

After being battered in the early session, the BSE Sensex spurted 1,325.34 points and the NSE Nifty rose 365.05 points to settle the day at 9,955.20.

Indian market saw its biggest intra-day selloff in early session, wiping nearly Rs 12 lakh crore off investor wealth in less than 20 minutes of opening trade.

As coronavirus-led recession fears triggered panic selling globally, both Sensex and Nifty plunged over 10 per cent in the opening session, hitting their lower circuit levels.

Stock exchanges halted trading for 45 minutes. Normal trading resumed at around 1030 hours. The last circuit freeze happened in January 2008.