Indian shares closed nearly 2 per centlower on Monday, hurt by a selloff in IT stocks, as increasing cases of the Omicron variant spooked investors
Indian shares closed nearly 2 per cent lower on Monday, hurt by a selloff in information technology (IT) stocks, as increasing cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant spooked investors ahead of the central bank’s decision on interest rates.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index slipped below the 17,000 mark and was down 1.65 per cent at 16,912.25, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was 1.65 per cent lower at 56,742.35 at the closing bell. Both indexes posted their lowest close since August 27.
Most major sub-indexes ended lower, with IT, auto and pharma stocks falling the most, as India’s tally of reported cases of the heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus variant rose to 12 on Sunday.
“Ambiguity surrounding Omicron continued to dent the morale of domestic investors ahead of the important Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policy announcement on Wednesday,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
“The domestic market is expected to be volatile as the near-term will be dominated by developments on new variant and policy decisions.”
The three-day monetary policy committee meeting of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) starts on Monday and investors will watch out for commentary from the central bank on future rate hikes.
According to a Reuter’s poll of economists, the RBI will hold rates at its December meeting and hike its reverse repo rate early next year and increase repo rate the following quarter.
The Nifty IT index which is up about 44% for the year, fell nearly 3% and marked its worst day in nearly two months.
Index heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Ltd fell 2.9% and 2.3%, respectively.
The Nifty realty index gave up early gains to close 1.4% lower, while the Nifty auto index slipped 1.8 per cent.
Disclaimer: TheWorldsTimes claims no credit for images featured on our news site unless otherwise noted. The content used is copyrighted to its respectful owners and authors also we have given the resource link to the original sources whenever possible. If you still think that we have missed something, you can email us directly at theworldstimes@gmail.com an
Disclaimer: TheWorldsTimes claims no credit for images featured on our news site unless otherwise noted. The content used is copyrighted to its respectful owners and authors also we have given the resource link to the original sources whenever possible. If you still think that we have missed something, you can email us directly at theworldstimes@gmail.com an
Any information published on Theworldstimes.com is taken from the internet and we have given resource names in our every news still if we missed anything so please email us and we will surely do the needful.
Resources – https://www.ndtv.com/business/why-shares-fell-today-omicron-was-one-cause-2639358#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll
