Sensex crashes over 1,500 points over Omicron fears

The overall breadth was also extremely negative, with nearly 5 declining stocks versus a advancing share on the BSE.

The key benchmark indices continued to languish near the lows on Monday, tracking across-the-board losses amid a selloff in global markets as concerns over rising Omicron cases spooked investors.

Persistent foreign fund outflow too weighed on investor sentiment.

The BSE Sensex was down 1,539 points at 55,473, and the NSE Nifty had dropped 482 points to 16,503.

The Nifty Bank index tumbled to a six-month low, down over 4 per cent dragged by a sharp correction in private sector banks as foreign investors continued pulling out funds from Indian equities.

AU Small Finance Bank, Bandhan Bank, Federal Bank and RBL Bank from the Nifty Bank index tanked between 6 per cent and 10 per cent on the NSE.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 2,069.90 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.

The BSE Midcap index had tanked 4.4 per cent, and the Smallcap index had shed 4.2 per cent.

The overall breadth was also extremely negative, with nearly 5 declining stocks versus a advancing share on the BSE.

Rising inflation, hawkish central banks, exploding COVID cases, sustained selling by FIIs and slowing growth momentum in the developed economies combined to produce the perfect storm that spooked the markets last week, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

“These negative factors persist, causing concerns about further downtrend in the market, particularly if FIIs continue to sell.

“Also, FIIs will turn buyers soon when valuations become attractive,” he noted.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with heavy losses in mid-session deals as concerns over resurgence of COVID cases battered global sentiment.

International oil benchmark Brent crude fell 2.45 per cent to $71.72 per barrel.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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