Indian shares log worst session in 2 months as deepening Mideast conflict alarms investors
Updates with closing levels at 3:30 P.M. IST
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee
Oct 3 (Reuters) - A deep selloff pushed Indian shares to their worst session in two months on Thursday, as anxious investors worried about ripple effects on the domestic economy from the widening Middle East conflict.
The Nifty 50 index .NSEI closed 2.12%lower at 25,250.1points, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN shed 2.1% to 82,497.1. The benchmarks posted their worstsession since early August.
Asian peers outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 1.25% asMiddle East tensions curbedrisk sentiment after Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this week, stoking worries that crude supplies from the world's biggest producing region may be disrupted.
"The Middle East tensions have made investors very nervous, with the rhetoric from both Israel and Iran spurring worries of further escalation, which is triggering risk aversion and profit booking," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of research of retail equities at SMC Global Securities.
A jump inoil prices on the day triggereddeclines in domestic paintmakers, tyre-makers and oil refiners, which count crude or crude-linked products as theirraw materials.
Foreign outflows from India to China could also intensify in the near term due to China's recent announcement of stimulus measures to boost its economy, adding to the pressure on domestic equities, analysts said.
Jefferies has increased its weightage of China in its Asia Pacific ex-Japan portfolio, trimming itsweightage of India. HSBC has also upgraded China stocks to "overweight" from "neutral" after the stimulusmeasures.
On the day, only two of the Nifty 50 constituents settled higher while all the 13 major sectoral indexes declined.
Realty .NIFTYREAL and auto .NIFTYAUTO fell 4.4% and 2.9%, while high-weightagefinancials .NIFTYFIN dropped 2.4%.
Among individual stocks, consumer goods firm Dabur DABU.NS lost 6.3% after it forecastits first quarterly revenue decline since 2020.
The broader, more domestically-focused small- .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 lost about 2% each.
About 76% of the total 2,912 shares trading on NSEdeclined, as the market breadth turned in favour of the bears.
India's Nifty 50 set to log worst session since early August https://reut.rs/3XPgDkP
Market breadth in Indian markets skewed in the favour of bears https://reut.rs/4eLr6Vq
Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Sonia Cheema
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
