SOME ASIAN MARKETS SURGE TO BULL TERRITORY

Global stock market rallied on Monday on first signs of coronavirus cases peaking in Europe and some US regions, but Indian stock market investors would still be weighing negative domestic cues of rising new cases of Covid-19 when the market opens on Tuesday after a three-day break.

Analysts said the domestic market has priced in most of the negatives and the extend of damage done by the lockdown is now getting assessed while both US and Europe were seeing negative growth in fresh pandemic cases

Major Asian stock market benchmarks gained on Monday led by Japan’s

April 6: South Korean, Philippine and Indonesian stocks are the first in Asia Pacific to enter technical bull markets, rising over 20 per cent from lows reached just weeks ago, as investor sentiment was buoyed by a slowing death toll in some of the world’s coronavirus hotspots.

Asia’s regional benchmark climbed 2.5 per cent. New York State fatalities fell for the first time, and Italy had the fewest deaths in more than two weeks. President Donald Trump said he sees signs the US outbreak is beginning to level off. Markets were also optimistic

Nikkei index (4.24 per cent), South Korea’s Kospi (3.85 per cent), and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (2.21 per cent) while China’s stock market was closed. Key European about Saudi Arabia, Russia and other oil producers moving to negotiate a deal to stem a historic price crash.

In South Korea, the Kospi index gained 3.9 per cent to close 23 per cent above its March 19 low.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index rose 4.2 per cent on Monday, 20.5 per cent above an eight-year low set on March 19.

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite Index jumped 4.1 per cent, pushing its gain from March 24 to 22 per cent, meeting the technical definition of a bull market.

market indices were also trading in the green around 7.30 IST with the UK's FTSE 100 up 2.72 per cent, German DAX up 4.97 per cent and French CAC up 3.81 per cent.

US market benchmark Dow Jones Indus-trial Average also opened more than 4 per cent higher as the index surged over 1000 points in the first half an hour of trade.

India's dominant services sector, the lifeblood for economic growth and jobs, contracted in March as new business and export demand fell sharply as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc globally, a private survey showed.

The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index fell sharply to a five-month low of 49.3 in March from February's seven-year high of 57.5, below the 50mark separating growth from contraction for the first time since October.

"Strong growth momentum seen so far in 2019 was halted in March as demand conditions deteriorated, particularly overseas, leading to a reduction in business activity," Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit, said in a release.

That mirrors a sharp deceleration in global activity as the coronavirus pandemic paralyses economies, with evidence mounting that the world is sliding into recession.

A manufacturing survey last week showed a cooling in growth which combined with a contracting services sector dragged the composite PMI to a five-month low of 50.6 last month.

The outlook looks grim, with an index tracking