The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are likely to extend losses for the fifth trading session on Tuesday tracking SGX Nifty and weak global markets.(Express photo by Heena Khandelwal)
The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are likely to extend losses for the fifth trading session on Tuesday tracking SGX Nifty and weak global markets.
At 8.30 am, SGX Nifty was down 49.50 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 7,760.
Asian stock markets teetered near their weakest levels in three weeks on Tuesday, as a rout in oil prices to near seven-year lows knocked global energy company shares and commodity currencies. Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai were down 1.89 per cent, 1.03 per cent and 1.43 per cent, respectively.
The plight of oil market hit energy shares on Wall Street hard. S&P 500 lost 0.7 per cent to 2,077.07, led by 3.7 per cent decline in the S&P energy sector energy index.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures dropped 5.4 per cent to $40.66 per barrel on Monday, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) policy meeting on Friday ended without an agreement to lower production. Keeping production at near record levels in an oversupplied market has spooked investors grappling with reduced demand from China, the world’s biggest energy consumer.
Back home, falling for the fourth straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Monday slipped by 108 points to close at a three-week low of 25,530.114 led by a fall in ITC after a GST panel suggested 40 per cent tax rate for demerit goods like pan masala and tobacco. The index is on a downward spiral since Wednesday on sustained foreign fund outflows and has lost 639.30 points since.
Shares of oil producers will remain in focus on Tuesday due to falling crude oil prices and OPEC decision against slashing high output levels. Reliance Industries, Cairn India and ONGC fell 1.25 per cent, 2.62 per cent and 1.54 per cent, respectively, on Monday.
(With agency inputs)