Middle East tensions: Dalal-Street awaits tense session as crisis sinks global markets

MUMABI: Investors on Dalal Street are expecting another session of strong selling on Wednesday when markets resume after a day's trading break for Holi. Escalating war in West Asia pulled most global stocks deep into the red on Tuesday.

In late trades on Tuesday in GIFT City, Nifty futures were down 3.3% or about 825 points from Monday's close, indicating a sharp slide in stock prices on Wednesday's opening trades in India.




On Monday, sensex had closed 1,048 points or 1.3% lower at 80,239 points while Nifty on NSE was down 313 points or 1.2% at 24,866 points. Both the indices were around their respective six-month closing low levels.

In early trades Tuesday, the Dow Jones index had slid more than 1,100 points or 2.2% while the broader S& was down more than 2%.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices have jumped over 15% since Saturday. Late on Tuesday while Brent was at $84/barrel level, WTI was at close to $77. For India, according to analysts and economists, rising crude prices could potentially push up inflation, send macro fundamentals into disarray and weaken the rupee.

As the dollar strengthened against several currencies, the price of gold and silver took a tumble. At 2115IST, while the dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's strength against a basket of major currencies, was up nearly 1% to over 99.5, gold in Comex in the US was down 4.6% and silver 8.4%.