(Bloomberg) -- India's stocks declined for the seventh week, and ahead of an extended weekend, after comments Friday morning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to offer any concrete measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the nation.
The S&P BSE Sensex Index slid 2.4% to close at 27,590.95 and capped seven straight weeks of declines, last seen in 2008. The NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped by 2.1% Friday after Modi used a video message to the nation to ask citizens to light candles to “challenge the darkness” of the crisis and practice social distancing. India markets are closed Monday for another holiday.
“It's too dynamic right now for traders ahead of the long weekend,” said Dharmesh Kant, head of retail research at Indianivesh Securities Ltd. “There is a constant push and pull between signs of containment of the virus and discounting its impact on the economy.”
The nation continues to grapple with a three-week lockdown and a spike in confirmed cases. The Reserve Bank of India late Friday announced 11 days of shortened trading time for bonds and foreign exchange effective April 7. The thinning out of activity is impacting market liquidity and increasing volatility of financial prices, the central bank said in a statement.
“Such a move would be indicative of further hardships and continuity of lockdown,” Kant said.
The yield on benchmark 10-year sovereign bonds rose 14 basis points to 6.28%. The rupee declined 0.7% to 76.0650 per dollar. Trading volume in India's financial markets has thinned as thousands of traders and brokers work from home, and after banks curtailed operations during the second week of the lockdown.
Foreigners pulled about $15 billion from the country's stocks and bonds in March, the most in emerging Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as the Sensex capped its worst quarter ever.
Last in line
The government has already taken several steps to prop up an economy set to grow at its slowest pace in more than a decade. It has rolled out a $22.6 billion spending plan and said it will sell about $64.5 billion of bonds in the six months to September. Meanwhile, the central bank has delivered an emergency interest-rate cut and lifted restrictions on purchases of some government bonds by foreign investors.
India has confirmed 72 deaths and nearly 2,600 cases linked to the coronavirus, as thousands of health officials across the world's second-most populous country are racing to identify people connected to at least 10 virus hotspots.
Read: India's Virus Hotspots Spur Nationwide Search For Infections
The Numbers
Thirteen of the 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. slid, led by a gauge of bank shares.
Axis Bank Ltd. sank the most among Sensex companies and ICICI Bank Ltd. was the biggest drag on the gauge.
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