Indian Shares Tumble Amid Broad-based Selling

Indian shares fell sharply on Monday as investors stepped into a week packed with IPO activity and central bank decisions.

Renewed foreign institutional investor (FII) selling, IndiGo’s flight chaos, uncertainty over India-U.S. trade deal and the recent spike in Japanese bond yields also weighed on sentiment.

It is feared that the sharp rise in Japanese yields due to inflation running above target could trigger fresh unwinding of the yen carry trade, potentially accelerating outflows from emerging markets like India.

The benchmark BSE Sensex slumped 609.68 points, or 0.71 percent, to 85,102.69, while the broader NSE Nifty index fell 225.90 points, or 0.86 percent, to 25,960.55.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes plunged 1.7 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, signaling heightened nervousness on Dalal Street.

The market breadth was extremely weak on the BSE, with 3,351 shares falling while 952 shares advanced and 182 shares closed unchanged.

PSU stocks were among the worst hit, with BEL losing nearly 5 percent. Power Grid Corp, Bajaj FinServ, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Trent and Eternal all fell around 2 percent.

Globally, Asian markets turned in a mixed performance as investors parsed Chinese trade data, navigated deteriorating China-Japan relations and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision due on Wednesday.

The Fed is likely to cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday but the path for 2026 looks more uncertain.

European stocks were mixed ahead of interest-rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Swiss National Bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Canada this week.

Oil prices dipped but held near two-week highs after U.S.-Russia talks failed to find a breakthrough.

Gold inched higher as the dollar softened on rate cut expectations. Bullion also benefitted from data released on Sunday that showed China’s central bank added to its reserves for a 13th straight month in November.