Stocks slide on crude oil concerns

BPCL worst-hit, sheds more than 7%

A view of the BSE building in Mumbai. File

A surge in global crude prices following drone attacks on oil facilities at Saudi Arabia made equity investors jittery on Monday with the benchmark Sensex shedding 900 points during the pre-open session.

While stocks across sectors lost ground, the worst hit were oil marketing majors as crude prices jumped almost 10% amid concerns relating to a fall in global supplies.

The benchmark indices, however, recouped most of the losses and many mid-cap and small-cap stocks even gained ground.

The 30-share Sensex, which fell to 36,485 during the pre-open session, settled the day at 37,123.31, down 261.68 points, or 0.70%. The broader Nifty managed to close at 11,003.50, shedding 72.40 points, or 0.65%.

Geopolitical risks

“Geopolitical risks have come to fore once again,” said Gaurav Dua, head, capital market strategy and investments, Sharekhan.

“Over the weekend, the drone strikes on Saudi’s oil processing facilities have added to the trade war-related uncertainties and deteriorated market conditions globally. Moreover, Indian economy also gets impacted due to surge in crude oil prices,” he added.

The BSE Oil & Gas index was the worst performer of the day, shedding 1.61%. BPCL was the worst-hit, losing over 7% while HPCL and IOC were down 5.70% and 1.15% respectively.

The effect of the surge in crude prices was visible on airline stocks with Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet losing in the range of 2-4% each. Jet Airways lost a marginal 0.27%. Among the Sensex pack, SBI, M&M and Yes Bank lost over 2% each while stocks like RIL, L&T, Indusind Bank, Tata Steel, HDFC and Asian Paints lost between 1-2% each.