MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices tanked in early trade on Monday, with the Sensex tumbling 929.74 points, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and weak trends from global markets.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 1.4%, to 73,315 levels, while the Nifty50 dropped 160 points, or 1.3%, to 22,315 level.
The fresh falls come as equity market benchmarks had crashed by 1% each on Friday due to similar factors.
In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap 100 fell about 2% while the Nifty Smallcap was down 3% on Monday Morning. All the sectoral indices were trading in red with the Nifty Realty index, Nifty Media and Nifty PSU bank index falling more than 2% each.
In the Nifty50 pack, as many as 46 stocks were trading with a cut. Tata Consumers, Tata Motors, BPCL, Adani Enterprises and Bajaj Finserve were the major laggards.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said that many headwinds would weigh on markets today. The renewed conflict in the Middle East, proposed changes in the India-Mauritius tax treaty and the hotter-than-expected US inflation are negatives.
“But partly these negatives are in the price since a retaliation from Iran was expected and the higher US inflation was discounted by the market on Friday. Signals from the crude market indicate that the Iran-Israel conflict is unlikely to escalate. President Biden has clearly indicated that he doesn’t support Israeli retaliation. So, the situation may calm down. However, investors have to be guarded since the element of uncertainty is high during a tense situation like this,” added Vinaykumar.
He added that IT stocks will be resilient on the back of better-than-expected numbers from TCS and a promising outlook for FY 25. Banking stocks are also likely to exhibit strength since the results will be good and valuations are fair, he said.
Foreign fund outflows and hotter-than-expected US inflation data also played spoilsport for the markets.
Tata Consultancy Services climbed nearly 1 per cent after the IT services major on Friday reported a 9 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 12,434 crore in January-March quarter of FY24 due to strong domestic business even as the company struggled in its key markets overseas.
Nestle and HCL Technologies were the other gainers.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading lower while Shanghai quoted in the positive territory.
Wall Street ended significantly lower on Friday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.17 per cent to USD 90.30 a barrel.
(With inputs from PTI)