Indian equity markets took breather on Friday after four days of selloff, with Sensex and Nifty ending higher by around 6% each. Indices made a cautious start of the day, as CRISIL slashed the country's economic growth forecast by 50 Basis points (bps) to 5.2 percent for fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21) as against earlier forecast of 5.7 percent expansion as the longer Covid-driven shutdowns will further roil the already weak economy. But, markets soon staged recovery, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of setting up of a COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force to decide on relief package for sectors hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Key Indices extended their gains in late afternoon deals, tracking firm global markets. Market participants were seen taking a note of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FICCI) statement that there is an urgent need to take immediate steps to contain the spread of coronavirus and address key pain areas of the industry which can help in minimising its impact on Indian economy and businesses. The street overlooked a report that Fitch Ratings cut India growth forecast to 5.1 per cent for FY 2020-21, saying supply chain disruptions in the wake of coronavirus outbreak are likely to hit investment and exports. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 1627.73 points or 5.75% to 29915.96, while the CNX Nifty was up by 482.00 points or 5.83% to 8745.45.

The US markets ended deeply in red on Friday, with losses of around four percent, as panic over the coronavirus outbreak refused to abate, amid the acceleration of the global death toll. Investors failed to get any sense of relief by the government's response to limit the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic, whose severity and duration is unclear, and an early Friday rally faded fast. Besides, President Trump said that interest on student loans would be waived temporarily and earlier, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the U.S. tax filing day in the US would be moved to July 15, extending the deadline from April 15. As of Friday, nearly 260,000 coronavirus cases had been confirmed around the globe. The World Health Organization noted that it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide - but only 12 days to log the next 100,000. On the economic data front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales jumped 6.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units last month, the highest level since February 2007. The data reflected contracts signed in January and early February, before the highly contagious virus swept through the country, severely disrupting economic activity. Street had forecast existing home sales would rise 0.7% to a rate of 5.50 million units in February. Existing home sales, which make up about 90% of US home sales, accelerated 7.2% on a year-on-year basis in February. 

Crude oil futures ended lower on Friday as economic stimulus plans from government and central banks fail to offset expectations for steep fall in demand due to coronavirus pandemic, and as Saudi Arabia and Russia oversupply the market. Russia and Saudi Arabia have started a price war following the recently concluded OPEC+ meeting failing to agree on deepening crude output reductions. Meanwhile, Trump indicated he could intervene in the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia at the appropriate time, and that he was searching for medium ground to break the deadlock as low prices were hurting the domestic oil industry. Crude oil futures for April dropped $2.79 or 11.1 percent to settle at $22.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude fell $1.49 or 5.2 percent to settle at $26.98 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Erasing all of its initial gains, Indian rupee depreciated marginally against the US dollar on Friday, amid buying in the American currency by banks and importers. Investor sentiments remained fragile as Crisil slashed the country's economic growth forecast by 50 Basis points (bps) to 5.2 percent for fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21) as against earlier forecast of 5.7 percent expansion as the longer Covid-driven shutdowns will further roil the already weak economy. It said the Covid-19 pandemic will leave the economy crippled next fiscal. However, losses remain capped as some optimism came with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of setting up of a COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force to decide on relief package for sectors hit by the coronavirus outbreak. On the global front, dollar lost steam on Friday after an ascent that left it set for its biggest weekly gain since the 2008 global financial crisis, as the coronavirus pandemic caused a stampede for cash that has trampled asset markets. The last traded price of rupee was 75.20, 8 paise weaker from its previous close of 75.12 on Thursday.

The FIIs as per Friday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6761.35 crore against gross selling of Rs 11343.03 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 336.91 crore with gross sales of Rs 6141.20 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7.20 crore against gross selling of Rs 30.04 crore.

The US markets ended sharply lower on Friday as investors remained jittery about the direction of the economy despite hopes for government and central bank action to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Monday as a rising tide of national lockdowns threatened to overwhelm policymakers' frantic efforts to cushion what is likely to be a deep global recession. Indian markets ended higher on Friday, after four sessions of heavy losses, as governments and central banks around the world announced a raft of stimulus and support measures to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Today, the start of the crucial F&O series expiry week is likely to be pessimistic tailing weak global cues. Fast spreading coronavirus likely to weight down on sentiments. The coronavirus (Covid-19) positive cases surged in India on Sunday to 396 -- the highest increase of 81 over 24 hours so far. Also, three more coronavirus deaths were reported from Mumbai, Bihar and Gujarat. This takes the total number of deaths in India to seven. Moreover, Section 144 was imposed with effect from 9 pm on March 22 to midnight of March 31. This is to prevent any gatherings of more than five people. There will be some cautiousness with report that the large amount of selling by foreign institutional investors for nearly a month due to recession fears after rapid wide-spreading novel coronavirus in Europe and United States was one of the biggest reasons for equity market correction. FIIs net sold Rs 20,908 crore worth of shares in the week ended March 20, taking the total to Rs 51,243 crore in March so far. It was the biggest ever monthly outflow. Separately, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data showed that the country's foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time in almost six months to $481.89 billion in the week ended March 13, after touching a record high of $487.23 billion. However, some respite may come later in the day as the RBI will inject liquidity of Rs 30,000 crore through open market operations (OMOs) on March 24 and March 30 to maintain financial stability in the system in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, to mitigate the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the economy, India Inc has sought a host of measures, including a year-long moratorium by banks on debt repayment, tax cuts and fiscal stimulus amounting to Rs 2 lakh crore to needy citizens through Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer. Besides, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman could announce measures to deal with the economic impact of Covid-19 in her reply to the Finance Bill on Monday. There will be some buzz in the insurance stocks with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) data showing that non-life insurance firms reported a 14% increase in the premium collection to Rs 1.73 trillion during April-February this financial year. There will be some reaction in cement stocks with a private report that even though the ongoing temporary shutdown in the wake of Covid-19 has impacted construction activities across the country resulting in a decline in cement uptake, the hit on domestic demand is transient. 

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• Hero MotoCorp has started commercial production at its new greenfield manufacturing facility, situated at Chittoor in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. 
• Coal India has received approval from its Board of Director for converting Rs 2,539 crore-worth redeemable preference shares held in its subsidiary BCCL into equity shares. 
• APSEZ has raised Rs 125 crore and allotted 1,250 Rated, Listed, Secured, Redeemable, NCDs of the face value of Rs 10,00,000 each on private placement  basis. 
• SBI is mulling to seek the extension of approval accorded by Central Board for raising Equity Capital from market up to Rs 20,000 crore till March 31, 2021.