Nifty, Sensex Open Lower As Banking Concerns Linger

Indian shares opened lower on Monday as some investors worried about contagion risks in the global banking system despite a historic Swiss-backed acquisition of troubled Credit Suisse by UBS Group offering some relief.

The Nifty 50 index was down 0.87% at 16,953.80, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.84% to 57,512.22 as of 9:41 a.m. IST.

All the 13 major sectoral indexes declined with high weightage financials and information technology (IT) falling 0.7% and 1.4%, respectively.

Forty-five of the Nifty 50 constituents logged losses. All the Adani group stocks fell on a report that the group suspended work on $4.2 billion petrochemical project at Mundra in Gujarat.

The Nifty 50 fell nearly 2% last week, its biggest drop in nearly a month.

Over the weekend, UBS said it will buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion francs ($3.2 billion), and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses, in a deal engineered by Swiss authorities.

Soon after the announcement, global central banks came out with statements to reassure markets. But investor sentiment remained fragile.

At least two major banks in Europe are examining scenarios of contagion, two senior executives close to the discussion told Reuters.

Among individual stocks, Tata Consumer Products fell over 2% after the company dropped acquisition talks with Bisleri.

Cochin Shipyard jumped over 6% after winning 5.50 billion Rupees order for zero emission feeder container vessels from Samskip Group.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)