Indian shares slid for a second straight session on Wednesday as record high global crude prices hurt state-owned refiners on worries that pricing controls would restrict them from passing on a bulk of the higher costs.
The 30-share Mumbai index fell 0.49 percent to 5,169.07 points, taking losses in the past two days to 0.6 percent after scaling an 11-week closing high on Monday.
"High oil prices are a cause of worry," said Suresh Parmar, head of equities trading with Darashaw & Co Ltd.
US oil prices posted a fresh record high above $44 per barrel on Wednesday as the Opec producers' cartel said there was little the group could do at the moment to cool red-hot prices.
Shares in state-run refiners eased on fears about their margins. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd fell 1.9 percent and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd shed 1.1 percent.
Oil is India's single-biggest import item as Asia's fourth-largest economy imports 70 percent of its crude.
But the high oil prices gave a boost to state-run energy explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's most valuable company by market capitalisation. ONGC, which is also the country's largest crude producer, gained 1.7 percent.
Reliance Industries, India's top petrochemicals maker and a refiner, rose 0.8 percent after Canada's Niko Resources announced a new gas find off India's east coast. Reliance owns a 90 percent stake in the two blocks.
An overnight drop in the Nasdaq index weighed on local tech stocks. Bellwether Infosys Technologies, India's second-biggest software services exporter, shed 1.7 percent, while Wipro dropped 1.2 percent.
Federal bonds gained after investors cheered news that the government would include a floating rate bond at its forthcoming sale of stocks to raise up to 80 billion rupees.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield slid 7 basis points to finish at 6.1564 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.