Mumbai (Maharashtra): Equity indices suffered a blow during early hours on Monday on the back of escalating geopolitical tension after a senior Iranian military official was killed by a US airstrike.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 456 points to 41,009 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 136 points at 12,094.
All sectoral indices were in the negative terrain with Nifty PSU bank falling by 3.2 per cent, metal by 2.2 per cent, auto by 1.7 per cent and FMCG by 0.8 per cent.
Among stocks, State Bank of India was the top loser after sinking by 3.2 per cent at Rs 322.80 per share. Metal majors JSW Steel and Hindalco slipped by 2.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively while Coal India dipped by 2.7 per cent.
Among the other prominent losers were Yes Bank, Power Grid Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors.
However, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Titan showed thin gains.
Meanwhile, Asian shares fell from 18-month highs owing to heightened Middle East tensions with both the United States and Iran exchanging threats.
The heightened tensions sent investors scurrying for the safety of gold, which hit a near seven-year high, while oil jumped to four-month peak.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan slipped by 0.7 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei slid by almost 2 per cent. Chinese shares too opened in the red with the blue-chip CSI 300 index off a shade. (ANI)
