Corona: Sebi assessing situation

Mumbai: With Corona virus playing havoc with domestic markets, regulators, including RBI and Sebi, are stepping in to salvage the situation.

The markets regulator Sebi said it is “internally assessing" the potential impact of the epidemic on the capital markets, even as the domestic equity market is witnessing huge volatility over the past week when the benchmark indices have fallen by over 7 per cent in line with the global meltdown.

"Sebi is aware of coronavirus and the possible impact that it can have on the market. We are taking the necessary steps," Sebi whole-time member S.K. Mohanty told reporters here.

"Whatever has to be done, has to be done. We are internally assessing the situation," he added.

He, however, said the Financial Sector Development Council (FSDC), an apex body of regulators formed by the government, is yet to get involved in the discussions.

The comments come a day after remedial action by central banks across the world, including a surprise 50 basis points cut in rates by the US Federal Reserve. The Reserve Bank of India  also came out with a statement on Tuesday, assuring the markets of all help.

Market regulators and central banks across the global are taking measures to mitigate the risk of economies getting hit by the outbreak.

According to global brokerage firm, Credit Suisse, the impact on Asian economies from the coronavirus outbreak could be worse than SARS. “We expect a bigger and possibly longer macro impact for Asia than was seen during SARS. Our base case is that 12 months from now Asian economies will be near where it would have been without the Wuhan virus, but see a sizeable risk of a significantly worse outcome,” Credit Suisse said in a report.

The SARC epidemic had a big but short macro impact, with every Asian market except India, Indonesia and Japan seeing a significant fall.