Indices open marginally lower on China Covid woes
BENGALURU: Indices opened lower on Monday, tracking weakness in global markets, as sentiment took a hit due to protests in major Chinese cities against the country's strict zero-Covid policy.
The benchmark S&P BSE sensex opened down 0.23% to 62,150.97, while the NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.19% to 18,477.35, before erasing all the opening losses.
Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap 100 outperformed their larger peers, rising 0.34% and 0.47%, respectively.
The slide followed a decline in Asian markets due to worries about Covid-19 management in the world's second-largest economy, after demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shed 1.45%.
Fears about a Covid-led dent in China's economic growth also weighed on commodities, with Brent crude slipping to $83 per barrel.
Among individual shares, Paytm fell 5.2% after the Reserve Bank of India declined to allocate a payment aggregator licence to the company.