Indian shares open lower as China sees COVID surge

Investors on the fence ahead of year's last derivatives series expiry

BENGALURU:

Indian shares opened lower on Thursday, tracking a slide in global equities, as investors fretted over the surge in COVID cases in China.

The Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was down 0.38% at 18,051.40, as of 09:18 a.m. IST, and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.41% to 60,655.13.

Most of the major sectoral indexes declined, with information technology (.NIFTYIT), auto (.NIFTYAUTO), oil and gas (.NIFOILGAS), and metals (.NIFTYMET) shedding over 0.5%.

Forty-four of the Nifty 50 constituents fell, with Hindalco (HALC.NS), JSW Steel (JSTL.NS), Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.NS), Eicher Motors (EICH.NS) and Power Grid (PGRD.NS) losing over 0.75%.

Wall Street equities closed lower overnight after investors assessed the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike path on mixed economic data released earlier in the week and concerns over a surge in COVID-19 cases in China.

Asian markets also declined, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index (.MIAPJ0000PUS) losing 1.03%.

Intraday volatility will be a factor in today's session ahead of the expiry of the December derivatives series, the last series of 2022, as traders settle their futures and options contracts.

Capping losses for domestic equities were oil prices, which fell on China demand concerns. Brent crude <LCOc1> fell below $83 per barrel while U.S. crude hovered around $79 per barrel.

Lower oil prices aid oil-importing countries like India, where crude constitutes the bulk of the country's import bill.

($1 = 82.7360 Indian rupees)