Concerned with flaring tensions in the Middle East, equity markets fell sharply on Monday. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 888 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 73,357 levels, while the Nifty50 dropped 160 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 22,360 level.
In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices declined 1.34 per cent and 2.08 per cent, respectively.
The broad-based selling was led by the Nifty Realty index (down 2.3 per cent), and the Nifty PSU bank index (down 1.5 per cent).
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said: “There are many headwinds that will 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.IT stocks will be resilient on the back of better-than-expected numbers from TCS and promising outlook for FY 25. Banking stocks will exhibit strength since the results will be good and valuations are fair.”
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