Nifty below 16,500, Sensex sheds nearly 800 points; metal gains

After making a strong comeback from seven consecutive negative closing on Friday, the Indian markets on Monday opened on a negative note as Ukraine Russia war kept the markets across the world on edge. In a significant breakthrough amid war, both the countries have agreed to hold talks on the border of Belarus "without preconditions", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.  

The SGX Nifty too had hinted at a negative opening for the domestic equity markets as the Futures index at the Singaporean Exchange was trading lower by 115 points or 0.69% to 16,544.50 amid Ukraine crisis at 9 am on Monday.  

The benchmarks shed over 1 per cent in the opening trade on Monday.  

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The Nifty50 slipped below16,500 while the Sensex shed more than 500 points as the two indices started the day at 16,498.05 and 55,329.46 respectively. Sensex declined further by nearly 800 points to trade near 55,000-mark.  All broader market indices turned negative as mid cap and small cap indices traded ith loss of around 1 per cent, minutes into opening, while metal sector surged as oil & gas even marginally gained.  

Only PowerGrid advanced on the Sensex as all others traded in the red in the opening trade on Monday. 

In line with the SGX Nifty, the Sensex too started over 500 points lower to 55,329.46 as all shares turned red on the 30-share index.  

Earlier, Ukraine-Russian conflict kept the Asian markets under pressure as all majr Asian indices traded in the negative around 8.30am on Monday. Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 0.35% lower, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange was trading 1.50% down, while Chinese Shanghai Composite too declined 0.30% in the early trade on Monday.  

Meanwhile, Crude oil jumped, while the Russian Rouble plunged nearly 30% to a fresh record low on Monday after Western nations imposed new sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system, said Reuters. 

Haven demand boosted bond yields along with the dollar and yen while the euro sank after Russian President Vladimir Putin put nuclear-armed forces on high alert on Sunday, the fourth day of the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, it added.