Markets to open marginally in green on Friday

Indian markets closed in red on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty hitting fresh three-year lows in intraday trade, as investors continued to fret about coronavirus pandemic and the risk of wider financial contagion. Today, the benchmarks are likely to get flat-to-positive start tracking gains in global markets. Some support will come with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s (DGFT) statement that the government has removed import restrictions on certain chemicals including zinc dross; light, heavy, and full range naphtha. It has also allowed flying clubs to freely import aviation gasoline with certain conditions. Traders may take note of report that the Finance Commission has constituted an 8-member panel to review the fiscal consolidation road map of the both state and central governments. The panel will be headed by 15th Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh. Though, there may be cautiousness as India reported its fourth coronavirus death on Thursday while the total COVID-19 cases rose to around 173, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to stay indoors and called for Janata Curfew on March 22. Traders may be concerned with Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian’s statement that India's growth is set to fall in the coming months as coronavirus-induced lockdowns and restrictions continue to disrupt economic activity, affecting a wide swathe areas, from shops and restaurants to street hawkers to factories. Also, there may be some cautiousness as Crisil warned that the Covid-19 pandemic will leave the economy crippled next fiscal pulling down the growth to a low of 5.2 per cent, against earlier forecast of the GDP printing of a 5.7 per cent expansion. Banking stocks will be in focus with a private report that banks’ exposure to the travel and hospitality sectors is at risk because of the economic disruption from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). There will be some reaction in tourism and hospitality stocks with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) report that the coronavirus impact could render 3.8 crore people jobless, which is around 70 per cent of the total workforce in the tourism and hospitality sector.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday as central banks and governments pledged support for the economic shocks from the coronavirus pandemic that’s claimed more than 8,000 lives around the globe. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Friday following overnight gains on Wall Street.

Back home, bears kept their hold on the Dalal Street for the fourth straight day on Thursday, as Sensex and Nifty settled with losses of over 2% each. After a negative start of the day, indices remained lower for the most part of the session, as exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organsations (FIEO) said export sector has started feeling the pinch of the outbreak of coronavirus as international buyers are asking to hold back shipments. Adding more worries among market participants, the Finance Ministry’s data report showed that total liabilities of the government increased to Rs 93.89 lakh crore at the end of December 2019, up 3.2 percent as compared to the previous quarter. However, markets managed to stage recovery during late noon deals and settled off day’s lows, after capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) relaxed certain listing disclosure obligations due to coronavirus pandemic, giving the companies a bit of a breather to compile their results. It allows listed companies to defer the disclosure of fourth quarter and annual earnings by 45 days to June 30. Besides, in order to maintain financial stability in the system in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to inject liquidity of Rs 10,000 crore through open market operations (OMOs) on March 20. Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 581.28 points or 2.01% to 28288.23, while the CNX Nifty was down by 205.35 points or 2.42% to 8263.45.