Stock markets tumble in early trade amid worsening tensions in Middle East
Mumbai (PTI): Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on Monday amid heightened tensions in the Middle East after the US bombed three major nuclear sites in Iran.
The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 705.65 points to 81,702.52 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 182.85 points to 24,929.55.
The US bombed three major nuclear sites -- Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan -- in Iran, bringing itself into the Israel-Iran conflict.
"Even though the US bombing of Iran’s three nuclear facilities has worsened the crisis in the West Asia, the impact on the market is likely to be limited. Even though the possibility of the closure of Hormuz Strait is a threat, it is important to understand that this has always been only a threat and the Strait had never been closed," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.
From the 30-Sensex firms, Infosys, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid and Eternal were the biggest laggards.
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were trading lower while Shanghai's SSE Composite index quoted marginally higher.
US markets ended mostly lower on Friday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.69 per cent to USD 78.31 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 7,940.70 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
On Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged 1,046.30 points or 1.29 per cent to settle at 82,408.17. The Nifty climbed 319.15 points or 1.29 per cent to 25,112.40.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
