Stocks mark lacklustre trade in India, abroad amid Omicron fears

Mumbai: The Omicron variant instils fear on investors, consequently extending losses on Indian equity benchmarks such as (BSE) Bombay Stock Exchange which fell 1,463 points and Nifty 50 which dropped below 16,550, NDTV reports.

As of 12:00 pm Monday, the BSE Sensex was down 1,348 points, 2.4 per cent at 55,641. Nifty 50 index meanwhile dropped 420 points, 2.5 per cent to 16,564.

The National Stock Exchange's gauges of 15 sectors were trading lower as the Nifty Metal Index fell over 3 per cent while Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, IT, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Consumer Durable indices fell between 1.5 to 2.85 per cent range. Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 2.76 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped around 3 per cent. These indices were showing selling pressure across all these sectors.

Further, 48 shares in the Nifty 50 basket traded lower. Bajaj Finance fell 4 per cent while JSW Steel, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Motors, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Hindalco and Bajaj Finserv fell between 2.5 to 3.6 per cent. Though Cipla and Sun Pharma recorded significant gains among some, the overall market was low as 2,389 shares were falling against 568 advancing on the BSE.

Omicron scare had grabbed Europe for more curbs, which reflected in the share markets. Asian share markets, as well as oil prices, fell on Monday. China has cut one year- loans while Chinese blue chips dropped 0.4 per cent. MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8 per cent, Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.7 per cent, and stocks of South Korea fell 1.2 per cent. Among futures markets, S&P dipped 0.8 per cent, Nasdaq 1 per cent, EUROSTOXX 50 1.1 per cent and FTSE 1.0 per cent.

The surging Omicron caused the Netherlands to resort to lockdown, and many followed, but the United States has not announced such a measure yet.