Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled more than 1,600 points to trade below 52,700 on Monday morning, tracking a weak trend in global equities amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slumped more than 440 points to trade below 15,800.
Nifty Auto and Nifty Bank were the major drags. While Nifty Auto was trading more than 4.50 per cent down from its previous closing, Nifty Bank tumbled more than 1,500 points or 4.36 per cent to trade below 33,000.
From the 30-share pack, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were the biggest drag, tumbling up to 6.3 per cent.
Anuj Gaur, Director of IBBM, said that markets are very volatile and taking very wild moves due to war situations and upcoming election results. "VIX is running very high which is an indication that the market is in a puzzling mood and can react aggressively to either side," he said.
"Long term investors need not worry about this fall. As Warren Buffett once said that he will not sell equity in case of war, even if the conflict escalated into World war III," Ravi Singhal, Vice Chairman, GCL Securities Limited, said.
In the previous trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark ended at 54,333.81, down by 768.87 points or 1.40 per cent. The NSE Nifty slumped 252.70 points or 1.53 per cent to end at 16,245.35.
"The benchmark indices are on massive selling due to an escalation of the war by Russia which is not only impacting the gold and crude but overall commodities prices worldwide. New sanctions against Russia have triggered huge jumps in gold and crude prices. In this scenario when the economies were already struggling to keep the pace of recovery, the fears of stagflation also started to creep in, with concerns over high commodity prices impacting inflation and slowing growth. Nifty may touch the level of 15500 in the near term with a strong prevalent bearish trend. Investors may remain cautious and follow a wait and watch strategy for the time being. Any fresh positions need to be avoided till the sentiments and situation stabilize," Ravi Singh-Vice President and Head of Research-ShareIndia, said.
Bourses in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo were trading significantly lower in mid-session deals. Stock exchanges in the US closed in the negative zone on Friday.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude surged over 9 per cent to go above USD 130 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they offloaded shares worth Rs 7,631.02 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
"This week's focus will be on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its impact on oil prices. On the home front, investors will be watching the outcome of the state elections in five states on March 10," according to Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities.
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