Finance ministry and regulators monitoring developments, volatility in stock markets: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said regulators and her ministry are monitoring developments and volatility in stock markets triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. She assured that the developments on stock markets are monitored thrice a day.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, the 30-share benchmark Sensex has shed 15,000 points in the last one month. At the same time, the rupee against dollar has weakened substantially during the last one month and there is fear of it breaching 77-mark in the next few days. The rupee was trading at 71.94 against a dollar on February 24 and opened at 76.02 against the greenback on Tuesday morning.

According to experts, the rupee is under pressure due to pull out by foreign investors leading to undue demand of dollar. Sitharaman said the finance ministry and all financial regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India, are working together and keeping a close vigil on the movement.

"We are monitoring the developments and volatility in the stock market. We are closely monitoring the situation and Sebi has come up with some set of guidelines and also stated its position in order to (check) volatility because of short-term transactions...and does not lead to greater instability in stock markets. So we are continuously monitoring the situation and it is happening thrice in a day," she said while announcing host of measures to deal with the impact of coronavirus. "As I said, we are on a regular consultation with the RBI. We are also in consultation with other regulators. So the markets are also being closely monitored, you can be assured that all the regulators, the Reserve Bank and us are working in perfect synchrony, and we will be keeping an eye on all these developments." she added.

Much to the relief of policymakers, both stock market and money market saw a bit of recovery on Tuesday..