The Indian equity benchmarks resumed decline after two sessions of the up move as investors turned cautious towards risk assets such as equities and poured money in crude oil and government bonds amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The Sensex fell as much as 1,227 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 16,478.
The benchmarks, however, staged some recovery from low in the last hour of trade wherein Sensex declined 778 points to close at 55,469 and Nifty 50 index dropped 188 points to close at 16,606.
Oil prices in international markets surged to the highest in over seven years to trade above $110 per barrel as Russia showed no signs of stopping its assault on Ukraine. A week after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the bombardments of Ukrainian cities continued while Western nations tightened sanctions on Moscow, news agency Reuters reported.
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Back home, thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Auto index's 3 per cent fall. Auto stocks faced selling pressure as problems of chip shortage increased further owing to concerns over shortage of raw materials going ahead. Ukraine is a major supplier of neon gas and Russia produces more than 40 per cent of palladium and both are key components to make semiconductors.
Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Private Bank, Pharma and Realty indices also dropped between 1.5-2 per cent.
On the other hand, metal and oil & gas shares witnessed buying interest on the back of rising base metal and crude oil prices in international markets.
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Mid- and small-cap shares ended mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 ended flat while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent.
Maruti Suzuki was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 6 per cent to close at Rs 7,815. Dr Reddy's Labs, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors, Grasim and Divi's Labs also fell between 2.5-5.15 per cent.
On the flipside, Coal India, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Tata Steel, Hindalco, UPL, JSW Steel, Titan and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,692 shares ended higher while 1,652 closed lower on the BSE.
