BENGALURU: Indian shares slumped on Friday to their lowest in seven months, tracking a sell-off in global equities, as a worsening Ukraine crisis sent oil prices surging and stoked inflation fears.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was down 1.77% at 16,205.45 by 0509 GMT, with all of its major sub-indexes seeing declines. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.8% at 54,113.57.
Both the indexes fell over 2% earlier in the session, touching their lowest since early-August last year, and were set for their fourth consecutive weekly loss.
Ukraine's state emergency service said on Friday a fire that broke out in a building near the largest nuclear power plant in Europe during intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has been extinguished.
"The inflation in January just touched the upper tolerance level of 6% (of the Indian central bank's targeted range) and the Reserve Bank of India is likely to look at the persistence of high inflation before taking a decision on policy rates," said Mohit Ralhan, a managing partner at TIW Capital Group.
Higher oil prices may push the inflation above the upper tolerance level but its persistence will depend on how much longer the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, Ralhan added.
India is the world's third-largest importer of crude oil, and rising prices push up its trade and current account deficit while hurting the rupee and fuelling imported inflation.
The Nifty's auto index, bank index, financial services index, and IT index were among the top losers, falling between 1% and 3%.
Among a few gainers on the Nifty 50, steel producer Tata Steel Ltd and cigarettes-hotel conglomerate ITC Ltd rose 1% each.
In broader Asian markets, shares suffered heavy losses while oil prices jumped on the worsening Russia-Ukraine conflict.
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