Indian shares fell on Monday after wholesale price-based inflation spiked to a four-month high in March and weak quarterly results from IT behemoth Infosys Ltd pressured stocks of its rivals. The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 1.73% to close at 17,173.65, while the S&P BSE Sensex ended the day down 2.01% at 57,166.74.
“The high rate of inflation in March 2022 is primarily due to the rise in prices of crude petroleum, natural gas, mineral oils and basic metals owing to the disruption in the global supply chain caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities. India’s inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) rose to 14.55% in March from 13.11% in February. Vineet Bagri, the managing partner of TrustPlutus Wealth, said that the rise in oil prices also contributed to the overall weakness in the market. Infosys reported weaker-than-expected results in the fourth quarter, hurt by higher employee-related costs.
“The downfall of IT stocks and subdued performance of the global market are impacting the performance of blue chips. Weak start to Q4 results and high inflation are leading to the underperformance of the main indices,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
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