Government, RBI closely monitoring markets: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government as well as the RBI were closely monitoring the domestic and global stock markets, which are facing intense volatility amid mounting coronavirus fears. Sitharaman also said different departments of the government are working to provide relief to industry, which could be severely impacted by the fast-spreading virus.

"As it is global markets have all had severe volatility and we are also consciously monitoring all of them. It is no consolation to say that the stock markets elsewhere have also suffered. I am conscious of that but globally there is a serious repercussion felt and we are conscious of the developments. Together with RBI we are closely monitoring," the FM told reporters.

After being battered in the early session, the BSE Sensex spurted 1,325.34 points and the NSE Nifty rose 365.05 points to end in the green. Indian markets saw their biggest intra-day selloff in early session on Friday, wiping off nearly Rs 12 lakh crore of 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.