Indian Shares End Notably Lower; IT Stocks Buck Trend

(RTTNews) - Indian shares fell notably on Monday, with a weaker rupee on continued FII selling and uncertainty over U.S.-Iran peace deal keeping investors nervous.

Provisional data showed that foreign investors offloaded shares worth Rs. 21,106 crore on Friday amid MSCI's May index rebalancing that took effect in the final hour of trading on Friday. That marked the highest single-day outflow in at least two years.

According to Goldman Sachs, the index rejig is expected to lead to about $870 million worth of outflows from Indian equities.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures jumped more than 3 percent above $94 a barrel today, U.S. Treasury yields edged higher and the Indian rupee slipped to 94.94 against the dollar amid a renewed exchange of military strikes between the United States and Iran.

The U.S. said it conducted "self-defense strikes" on radar and command sides in Iran over the weekend.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted an airbase allegedly used in a U.S. attack on a telecommunications tower on Sirik Island in southern Hormozgan province.

Iran has reasserted its control over Strait of Hormuz, declaring that all vessels must travel through designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

Tehran also made it clear that it would not agree to any deal with the U.S. until the rights of the Iranian people were secured.

Elsewhere, Israeli troops have captured the strategic site of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, escalating tensions in the region.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session down 508.40 points, or 0.68 percent, at 74,267.34, failing to hold on to its early gains.

The NSE Nifty index fell by 165.15 points, or 0.70 percent, to 23,382.60 while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes lost 1.4 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,759 shares falling while 1,592 shares advanced and 198 shares closed unchanged.

Among the prominent decliners, UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, Trent, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, ITC and Hindustan Unilever tumbled 2-3 percent.

IT stocks continued to gain, with TCS, Infosys and Tech Mahindra rallying 2-3 percent. Indigo gained over 1 percent after announcing its Q4 results.