Indian equity benchmarks opened lower tracking broader Asian stocks, which fell to the lowest in two years, driven by global recession risks, renewed COVID-19 outbreak in China and the war on the edge of Europe enveloping the entire world into an energy crisis.
The 30-share BSE benchmark declined over 300 points, while the broader NSE Nifty was down more than 0.5 per cent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan fell to its lowest level in two years, down nearly 1 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei lost about 2 per cent.
“Caution will be the buzzword for today’s trading as overnight US benchmark indices faltered while SGX Nifty and other Asian gauges too have retreated sharply in early trades,” said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President for Research at Mehta Equities.
The capital exodus from assets denominated by almost any other currency and into the safe-haven greenback was evident, as the dollar index, which tracks the currency against a basked of six peers rose to 108.47, the highest since October 2002.
“Risk-off sentiment is dominating global markets,” Yuting Shao, Macro Strategist at State Street Global Markets, told Reuters.
Financial markets have been whiplashed this year, and the minor gains at the end of the day may be a blip rather than a broader trend.