Indian shares fall as financials, inflation worries weigh

Indian shares ended lower on Tuesday as losses in financial stocks outweighed gains in auto companies, while fears of inflation due to rising global crude oil prices also spooked investors.

The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.53% to 17,957.40, while the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.72% to 60,176.50. Both the indexes had risen over 2% on Monday.

“There are too many worries. We are in a unique situation where the entire supply chain has been totally disturbed. Other commodity prices are also going up with oil,” said AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital.

Brent crude prices jumped on persistent supply worries, lifting Oil & Natural Gas Corp by 2.5% while stoking fears about high inflation. [O/R]

India is the world’s third-largest importer and consumer of oil, and a rise in crude prices tends to push the country’s trade and current account deficit higher while also hurting the rupee.

Prabhakar, however, said foreign funds have turned net buyers over the last two weeks, which is supporting the market.

Foreign investors have bought net $1.38 billion in equities since last Tuesday, including $1.14 billion in the previous session, Refinitiv data showed.

HDFC Bank and Housing Development Finance Corp were among the top losers in the blue-chip Nifty, falling 2.9% and 2.1%, respectively. Both companies had surged over 9% on Monday after unveiling a merger of their operations.

Zomato dropped 2.7% after India’s antitrust body said on Monday it would probe the online food aggregator over neutrality.

The Nifty bank index fell 1.5% and the finance index dropped 1.6% after gaining over 4% on Monday.

Auto companies were among the top gainers, buoyed by strong monthly sales, with the Nifty auto index rising 1.1%.

Power Grid and NTPC Ltd gained 2.5% and 3.3%, respectively, on rising power demand due to hotter weather.