Indian stocks fell for the fifth straight session on Wednesday as mounting coronavirus cases fueled investor concerns, with Bharti Airtel posting losses after rival Jio stepped up competition with new postpaid plans, while Tata Consultancy Services fell more than 2%.
The broader NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 0.2% to 11,131.85 and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.17% to 37,668.42. Both indices have lost more than 3% so far this week.
Shares of telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd fell as much as 10% to their lowest level since April 3, after rival Jio, the telecommunications unit of Reliance Industries, launched new postpaid plans on Tuesday along with services. video streaming.
TCS fell as much as 4.5% after the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) group, the Tata Group’s largest minority shareholder, said on Tuesday that it wanted to separate the interests of the auto-to-steel conglomerate.
“Tatas has to make some back-to-back arrangements to raise money if they part ways with Shapoorji Pallonji and investors can be asked to contribute directly or indirectly,” said Deepak Jasani, research director at HDFC Securities.
Meanwhile, coronavirus infections in India rose again on Wednesday. Britain reimposed some lockdown measures as a second wave of coronavirus infections swept through Europe, while the death toll in the United States topped 200,000.
“As new covid cases increase day by day … tension increases among retailers and among the big players in the market,” said Rahul Sharma, head of research at Equity99 Advisors in Mumbai.
Both benchmarks had previously risen nearly 1%, mainly driven by Reliance which rose as much as 3%, after it said US private equity firm KKR would invest 55.50 billion rupees ($ 755.09 million) in the retail arm of the conglomerate.
.
