March 9 (Reuters) – Indian shares opened sharply lower on Monday as rising crude oil prices weighed on the Asian nation’s economy, raising inflation concerns and pushing up import costs for the world’s third-largest oil importer.
Oil prices surged about 26% in early trading, hitting their highest level since July 2022.
As of 9:15 am IST, the Nifty 50 index was down 2.38% at 23,868.05 points and the BSE Sensex was down 2.36% at 77,056.75 points.
All 16 major sectors posted losses at the open. Broader small-cap and mid-cap stocks were down about 1.8% each.
Top private lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank fell 3.7% and 3.1% respectively, while oil-to-telecom group Reliance Industries fell 2.1%.
Other Asian stocks fell 4.7%, while Wall Street and European futures also fell as an inflationary hit from a surge in crude oil prices threatened to intensify or push global interest rates higher. Safe-haven demand keeps the U.S. dollar firm. [MKTS/GLOB]
Iraq and Kuwait have begun cutting oil output as war hampers shipments from the Middle East, adding to earlier cuts in Qatar’s liquefied natural gas output.
Brent crude oil prices rose 26.4% to $117.16 a barrel and were up 23% at $114.08 a barrel as of 9:15 am IST. [O/R]
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran, Vivek Kumar M in Mumbai and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Ronojoy Mazumdar)
