What changed for the market while you were sleeping? Top 15 things to know

Benchmark indices lost more than 9 percent in the week ended March 13, though the sharp rebound on last Friday from lower circuit levels soothed sentiment and curtailed losses to major extent.

The recovery seen on Friday was largely driven by value-buying, rally in global peers on more stimulus hopes, short-covering and DIIs buying. But overall sentiment still remains negative due to the fast-spreading novel coronavirus outside of China.

The sell-off seen last week was driven by rising cases in the United States and Europe, and Covid-19 being labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

Experts feel the intermittent rally could be possible, but overall the sentiment may remain weak and volatility is likely to be on the higher side as the solid recovery is unlikely unless the number of infected cases worldwide drop drastically.

According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 8,953.77 followed by 7,952.33. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 10,558.02 and 11,160.83.

The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 22,455.13, followed by 19,743.87. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 26,774.23 and 28,382.07.

The US Federal Reserve and global central banks moved aggressively on Sunday to buttress a world economy unraveling rapidly amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the Fed slashing interest rates to near zero, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in asset purchases and backstopping foreign authorities with the offer of cheap dollar financing.

In a news conference Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the epidemic was having a "profound" impact on the economy, forcing whole industries like travel and leisure offline. Yet the ultimate spread of the virus is so uncertain, Powell said, the Fed called off quarterly economic forecasts due this week as a futile exercise until it is clear how many people will get sick, and how long public gatherings will need to be discouraged in the name of public health.

Wall Street staged a furious rally in the waning moments of the session on Friday after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to combat the rapidly spreading coronavirus, although major averages still suffered sharp losses for the week.

In a volatile session, all three main indexes jumped more than 6% in early trading before paring to a gain of as little as 0.55% on the S&P 500 before rallying towards the close as Trump made the announcement with industry leaders of about $50 billion in federal aid to fight the disease.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,985 points, or 9.36%, to 23,185.62, the S&P 500 gained 230.38 points, or 9.29%, to 2,711.02 and the Nasdaq Composite added 673.07 points, or 9.35%, to 7,874.88.

Stock markets and the dollar fell heavily on Monday, after emergency rate cuts in the United States and New Zealand failed to allay fears about the coronavirus' economic shock, said a reuters report.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a 659 points loss. The Nifty futures were trading flat at 8,820 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn a whopping Rs 37,976 crore on a net basis from the Indian markets in March so far amid the coronavirus pandemic triggering fears of a global recession. Overseas investors pulled out a net sum of Rs 24,776.36 crore from equities and Rs 13,199.54 crore from the debt segment between Mar 2-13, depositories data showed.

This translates into a total net outflow of Rs 37,975.90 crore during the period under review. Prior to this, foreign investors were net buyers for six consecutive months since September 2019.

Oil prices extended losses on Monday, slumping by more than $1 a barrel, as an emergency rate cut by the US Federal Reserve failed to soothe global financial markets panicked by the rapid spread of the coronavirus and mounting economic disruptions.

Brent crude fell $1.83 to $32.02 a barrel by 2331 GMT, extending a plunge of over 20% last week. The front-month price opened at a high of $35.84 but slipped a low of $31.63. US crude was at $30.20, down $1.53 after slipping below $30 earlier in the session, despite US President Trump's pledge to fill strategic oil reserve at the world's largest oil consumer "to the top".

India's coal imports registered a decline of 14.1 percent to 17.01 million tonnes (MT) in February in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, as per industry data. The country's coal imports in February last year stood at 19.82 MT, according to a provisional compilation by mjunction services, based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data received from shipping companies.

Markets regulator Sebi on Friday put in place a framework for emerging investment instruments REITs and InvITs for issuance of units under the fast-track rights issue mode. This comes after the regulator earlier this month allowed fast-track rights issue by (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) without filing draft offer document with Sebi.

In a circular, the regulator said listed REITs and InvITs desirous of issuing units under fast-track rights issue will have to comply with certain guidelines.

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday revised exposure limits for urban cooperative banks (UCBs) to a single borrower and a group of borrowers to 15 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of tier-1 capital. The RBI had earlier permitted UCBs to have exposures up to 15 percent and 40 percent of their capital funds to a single borrower and a group of borrowers, respectively.

"On a review, it has been decided that the prudential exposure limits for UCBs for a single borrower and a group of connected borrowers shall be 15 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of their tier-I capital," the RBI said in a notification.

The equity shares of SBI Cards and Payment Services, the country's second largest credit card issuer after HDFC Bank, will be listed on bourses on March 16. It will be the first listing in the current calendar year. The credit card issuer has fixed final IPO price at Rs 755 per share, the higher end of price band (of Rs 750-755) and the employees received shares at a discount of Rs 75 per share to the final price.

The issue consisted a fresh issue of Rs 500 crore and offer for sale of more than 13 lakh equity shares by SBI and CA Rover. The public issue was subscribed 26.54 times during March 2-4, but was less than analysts' expectations due to weak market conditions after wide-spreading novel coronavirus that has taken over 4,600 lives with more than 1.28 lakh infected cases globally.

Credit pressures have intensified on India Inc as the coronavirus spread deepens in India and across the globe, leading domestic credit ratings agency Crisil said on Friday. Airlines, hotels, malls, multiplexes and restaurants will be the worst hit businesses, it warned. One person has died and over 80 have tested positive for Covid-19 in India, with hundreds in quarantine across the country.

In response, the government has suspended visas until April 15, barring a few cases, and state governments have adopted strategies like closing cinema halls. "Clampdowns are increasing both within and outside India, which would curtail consumer mobility and lead to deferral of spending," the agency said.

The Reserve Bank on Friday came out with regulatory guidelines for implementation of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) while preparing their financial results. The guidelines, which are aimed at promoting high quality and consistent implementation of Ind AS as well as facilitate comparison and better supervision, will be applicable to NBFCs and ARCs for preparations of their financial results from FY20 onwards, RBI said in a notification.

The guidelines mandate NBFCs/ARCs to put in place board-approved policies that clearly articulate and document their business models and portfolios. NBFCs/ARCs shall frame their policy for sales out of amortised cost business model portfolios and disclose the same in their notes to financial statements.

Open-ended equity-oriented mutual fund schemes saw the highest monthly inflows at Rs 10,796 crore in February this fiscal, even as the equity markets were hammered following the Covid-19 pandemic. The equity markets represented by the Nifty 50 fell over 6 percent during the month. Between February 10 and March 12, the Nifty tanked over 20 percent.

The net inflow into the broad category surged as investors looked to take advantage of the recent sharp declines in stocks due to worries that the Covid-19 pandemic may result in a global economic slowdown, Crisil said in a report on Friday. At the aggregate level, the open-ended equity fund AUM declined 4.1 percent to settle at Rs 7.57 lakh crore weighed by mark-to-market losses, Crisil said, quoting Amfi data.

India's exports rose for the first time in seven months in February growing by 2.91 percent to $27.65 billion, according to the commerce ministry data released on March 13. Imports too grew by 2.48 percent to $37.5 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $9.85 billion as against $9.72 billion in February 2019.

Oil imports jumped by 14.26 percent to $10.76 billion in February compared to 9.41 billion in the year-ago month. Exports during April-February this fiscal dipped by 1.5 percent to $292.91 billion. Imports during the period declined by 7.30 percent to $436 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $143.12 billion.

Rebounding from its record low of 74.50, the rupee traded higher by 48 paise at 73.80 against the US currency on Friday after the Reserve Bank's assurance that steps will be taken to maintain sufficient liquidity in the panick-stricken currency market. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened lower at 74.39 and slid further to the day's low of 74.50 against the US dollar as investors panicked weighing turmoil in financial markets due to coronavirus fears.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 6,027.58 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares of worth Rs 5,867.9 crore in the Indian equity market on March 13, provisional data available on the NSE showed.

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