Congress leader once again targeted the central government after bloodbath in the markets in India over coronavirus fears. The former Congress president also accused the Centre of being in a stupor.
“I will keep repeating this. The coronavirus is a huge problem. Ignoring the problem is a non solution. The Indian economy will be destroyed if strong action is not taken. The government is in a stupor,” Gandhi said on Twitter.
I will keep repeating this.
The #coronavirus is a huge problem. Ignoring the problem is a non solution. The Indian economy will be destroyed if strong action is not taken. The government is in a stupor. https://t.co/SuEvqMFbQd
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 13, 2020
Gandhi tagged his yesterday’s tweet in which called coronavirus “an extremely serious threat to our people and our economy”. “My sense is the government is not taking this threat seriously,” he had said in his Thursday’s tweet.
Investor wealth worth nearly Rs 12 lakh crore was wiped off in less than 15 minutes of trade opening on Friday, with benchmarks crashing over 10 per cent on mounting fears over coronavirus pandemic.
The 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 3,380.59 points, or 10.31 per cent, to 29,397.55 shortly after opening on Friday. It hit an intra-day low of 29,388.97, falling up to 3,389.17 points. The trading had to be halted for 45 minutes.
Traders said besides global sell-off, incessant foreign fund outflows also weighed on investor sentiments.
Volatility heightened in global markets as benchmarks world over went into panic mode, insinuating a freakish sell-off.
Bourses in Shanghai dropped over 3.32 per cent, Hong Kong 5.61 per cent, Seoul 7.58 per cent and Tokyo cracked up to 7.97 per cent. Wall Street lost 10 per cent in overnight trade.
More than 1,30,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded in 116 countries and territories, killing at least 4,900 people.
The number of coronavirus patients in India has risen to 75, as per Union health ministry. The government has taken unprecedented step of putting the country in a partial state of lockdown by suspending almost all the visas for a month. Screening is also underway on people arriving at 12 major sea ports and 65 non-major ports, and major land border crossings.
The government has also invoked two laws giving officials at state levels powers to take extraordinary steps to combat the outbreak. Shortly after this, the Delhi government announced the shutting down of cinema halls till March 31.
