Indian benchmark share indices suffered major losses on Tuesday amid fears that prices of crude oil might surge further following the drone attacks on two major oil plants in Saudi Arabia. Stocks of banks, automobile companies and metal firms led the losses, Mint reported.
The Sensex dropped 642 points to settle at 36,481 while Nifty ended 1.7% lower at 10,817. At the day’s lowest, the Sensex had slumped over 704 points to 36,419.09 while the Nifty50 fell 207 points to an intra-day low of 10,796.50. Both indices had declined 0.7% on Monday.
Oil prices rose to four-month highs on Monday after the attack by Houthi militants on Saudi Arabian oil facilities on Saturday destroyed 5% of the world’s supply. The Indian oil ministry said Saudi Aramco had assured Indian refiners that there would be no shortage in supplies.
Also read: Drone attack on Saudi refinery threatens India’s already slowing economy
Only three stocks rose on the Sensex – Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and Asian Paints. Hero Motocorp, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki were among major losers on the Nifty, while the gainers were GAIL, HUL, Titan Company, Asian Paints and Dr Reddy’s Labs.
The rupee closed at 71.77 against the dollar, down 17 paise.
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