India’s equity benchmarks created a bearish gap open on Tuesday on weak signals from other Asian markets as the spread of the coronavirus variant Omicron rattled investors. Capital investment is poised for a flurry of central bank decisions this week, including a key Federal Reserve meeting. Sensex fell more than 350 points and the Nifty 50 index slipped below the key psychological level of 17,250. Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and ICICI Bank are among the top companies on Sensex.
As of 9:23 a.m., the Sensex fell 377 points to 57,905 and the Nifty 50 index dropped 97 points to 17,270.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.46%.
China’s CSI300 was also 0.41% lower, after health authorities in Tianjin detected the country’s first case of Omicron.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 1%, South Korea’s KOSPI was 0.4% lower, Japan’s Nikkei stock index was down 0.13% and Australian shares were 0.31% lower.
The Fed on Wednesday is expected to signal faster cuts to its $120 billion-a-month bond-buying program in a move aimed at combating high inflation, which could move closer to rising interest rate.
Back home, 11 of 15 industry gauges traded lower, led by a 0.7% drop in the Nifty Auto index. The Nifty Financial Services, Banking, Information Technology, Private Banking, Realty and Oil and Gas indices also traded in negative territory.
On the other hand, Pharma, Healthcare and Metal stocks were bought.
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks traded mixed as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.25% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 0.12%.
Tata Motors was the biggest loser in Nifty, shares falling 1.3% to 489. Bajaj Finance, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Shree Cements, Britannia Industries and Bajaj Finserv also between 0.5-1 percent.
On the other hand, Power Grid, Cipla, Hindalco, NTPC, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, UPL, Hindustan Unilever and Coal India were among the gainers.
Market breadth was quite positive with 1,587 shares gaining while 1,071 shares declined on BSE.
