Indian shares fell on Monday as a lack of progress towards ending the Iran war kept crude oil prices elevated, while an end of quarterly earnings reporting season meant limited domestic triggers for investors.
The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) fell 0.32% to 24,287.65 and the BSE Sensex (.BSESN) lost 0.36% to 77,728.16. They were down 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, at 3:15 p.m. IST, ahead of the new closing auction session.
This marks one of the first instances when the benchmark indexes have closed at lower levels after the closing auction session, as compared to 3:15 p.m. when the regular trading ends.
Analysts had attributed a higher close in the last two weeks to lack of depth in India's securities lending and borrowing (SLB) segment, which made it difficult for traders to bet on a lower price.
Effective Monday, the stock exchanges have introduced shorter-tenor contracts in the SLB segment in a bid to facilitate greater price alignment and further deepen
participation in the SLB market.
This was Nifty 50's fifth straight session of losses, while 30-stock Sensex has fallen in four of the last five trading days.
U.S. President Donald Trump told Americans over the weekend to prepare for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war.
Brent crude futures rose nearly 1% to $89 per barrel.
Nine of the 16 major sectors fell. The broader small-caps (.NIFSMCP100) and mid-caps (.NIFMDCP100) rose 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively.
"The 1QFY27 corporate earnings season concluded on a strong note, demonstrating widespread outperformance across all key aggregates," analysts at Motilal Oswal said.
STOCKS THAT MOVED
Stock exchange BSE (BSEL.NS) slid 3.3% after Jefferies downfraded it to "underperform" from "hold", citing risks to proprietary trading volumes.
Edtech platform PhysicsWallah (PHYS.NS) jumped 2.4% after it reported a narrower loss for the first quarter after market hours on Friday.
Several other stocks reacted to earnings from Friday and over the weekend. Pharmaceutical formulations company Rubicon Research (RUBI.NS) and ice cream company Kwality Wall's (KWAI.NS) jumped 11.1% and 7.8%, while fintech solutions company Zaggle Prepaid (ZAGG.NS) and Schneider Electric Infrastructure (SEIN.NS) slumped 20% and 11.5%.
