Sept 9 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Wednesday as a fresh escalation in the Middle East conflict had Brent crude hurtling toward $100 per barrel, a pain point for the world's third-largest crude oil importer.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.67% to 23,474.4 and the BSE Sensex lost 0.83% to 74,954.33 as of 10:01 a.m. IST.
Twelve of the 16 major sectors logged losses.
IT index slid 3%, with constituent Coforge tumbling 6% after Chairman Om Prakash Bhatt resigned following concerns raised by an internal audit over the company's board evaluation process.
The broader small-caps and mid-caps lost 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively.
The Middle East war intensified on Tuesday with Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launching strikes on several Saudi cities, further embroiling a U.S. ally in the conflict, while U.S. forces hit multiple Iranian oil tankers and Iran struck a U.S. base in Jordan.
Brent crude futures jumped 1.5% to $99.5 per barrel. Higher oil prices threaten to widen the trade deficit, fuel inflation, and weigh on growth in India.
"With crude inching towards $100 a barrel, the whole sentiment view changes for the worse for domestic equities after what has been a stable earnings season," said Aman Chowhan, head of equities of Alternates at Abakkus AMC, adding, "Higher crude also brings a potential near-term U.S. rate hike to the table, which is negative for emerging market equities."
"Flows are also getting diverted from secondary markets with IPOs, QIPs hitting the Street every other day, which is compounding the pressure," Chowhan said.
Bucking the trend, Graphite India climbed over 13% to a near eight-year high after global graphite electrode leader GrafTech International announced a 30% minimum price hike.
Adani Enterprises gained 3.6% after it agreed to sell up to a 5.54% stake in its airport unit, raising about $1 billion from a group of investors comprising Temasek, BlackRock, Premji Invest and Alpha Wave to fund the business.
Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Harikrishnan Nair
Source: Reuters