Asian stock markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.1% while the Hang Seng is up 0.1%. The Nikkei 225 is trading down by 0.9%. US stocks rose on Friday and also posted gains for the week, boosted by a surge in Boeing shares, President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the coronavirus-battered economy and hopes of a potential drug by Gilead to treat COVID-19.
Back home, India share markets opened on a flat note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 57 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 8 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.1% and 0.6% respectively.
Sectoral indices are trading mixed with realty stocks and IT stocks witnessing buying interest. Power and telecom stocks are trading in the red.
Note that, the recent correction has made the valuations of many stocks further attractive. The icing on the cake is the dividend yields these stocks provide.
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Moving on, gold prices are currently trading up by 3.2% at Rs 45,735.
The rupee is currently trading at 76.52 against the US$.
In the news from the financial markets. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn a net Rs 126.5 billion from the Indian capital markets in April so far amid the coronavirus crisis.
Between April 1 to 17, FPIs pulled out a net sum of Rs 38.1 billion from equities and Rs 88.4 billion from the debt segment, the depositories data showed.
The total net outflow stood at Rs 126.5 billion.
However, April has been a tad better compared to March, when overseas investors had withdrawn a record Rs 1.1 trillion on a net basis from the Indian markets (both equity and debt).
The coronavirus impact has shaken markets worldwide. Indian stock markets have felt the full impact too.
For the BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.
Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.
Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?
History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets.
In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.
If you can find good businesses that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.
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Moving on to another news. The foreign exchange reserves gained by a healthy US$1.8 billion to US$476.5 billion for the week to April 10, as per the latest weekly data from the Reserve Bank released on Friday.
The forex reserves had declined by US$902 million to US$474.7 billion in the week to April 3, due to the fall in foreign currency assets.
In the week before, the reserves had surged by US$5.7 billion to US$475.6 billion.
On a year-on-year basis, the forex reserves had rallied by a whopping US$61.6 billion as of April 10, according to the RBI data.
During FY21 also, the foreign exchange reserves have risen by almost US$62 billion.
To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
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