Indian equities closed slightly lower on Monday, primarily affected by fears of decelerating earnings growth and a declining rupee amid persistent foreign capital outflows.
Additionally, markets faced pressure from escalating geopolitical tensions following an escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend. This came in conjunction with outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to permit Ukraine to utilize U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to target locations within Russia.
The S&P BSE Sensex experienced a decline of 241.30 points, or 0.31%, concluding the day at 77,339.01. Significant setbacks were observed in the IT, energy, and healthcare sectors. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty index closed at 23,453.80, marking a decrease of 78.90 points, or 0.34%, from its previous close.
Within the Nifty index, Cipla, BPCL, Infosys, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, and TCS saw declines ranging from 2% to 3%. Conversely, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, Tata Steel, and Hero MotoCorp saw gains between 1% and 3%.
NALCO, Hindalco, and Vedanta witnessed substantial gains of 3% to 9% following China's revocation of export tax rebates on aluminum and copper products.
Conversely, gas distribution firms Mahanagar Gas and Indraprastha Gas experienced sharp drops of 14% and 20%, respectively. This followed the government's decision over the weekend to implement a 20% reduction in the Administered Price Mechanism (APM) allocation to these companies for the second month in a row.
