Indian benchmark shares subdued after recent drop as oil worries outweigh banking gains

Business Recorder reported that Indian benchmark equities ended mostly lower on Thursday, with the Nifty 50 slipping 0.17% to 23,873.45 and the Sensex shedding 0.55% to 76,152.86. Worries about costlier oil outweighed a rally in bank shares, and the Sensex had at one point sunk as much as 2.5% in the closing auction, where sharp moves in the last quarter hour made closing levels hard to pin down.

Brent crude added 1% reaching $96.6 a barrel after fresh military strikes involving the US and Iran, which deepened concerns about inflation and energy supplies. Over the previous three sessions, both indices had slid roughly 1% as oil and global bond yields climbed. Lenders bucked the trend, with bank stocks, financial firms, private banks and state-run lenders each up 0.3% to 0.6%, while nine out of 16 key sectors finished in negative territory. Banks also collected over $60 billion from overseas Indian depositors in the last 10 days of a central bank swap programme, taking cumulative inflows to $136 billion.

Consumer goods maker Godrej Consumer dropped 2.8% after several brokerages flagged near-term pressure from persistent palm oil inflation. IT firm Hexaware slid 2.1% after its chief executive's departure raised doubts about its growth outlook. Smaller stocks did better, with small-caps up 1.2% and mid-caps up 0.4%, helped by clearer earnings prospects, domestic inflows and wider diversification.