Nifty below 17,650; European shares open lower

The domestic equity barometers slumped in afternoon trade. Global cues were negative as investors fretted over China Evergrande Group's debt crisis and a widening power shortage in China.

At 13:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 760.15 or 1.27% to 59,317.73. The Nifty 50 index traded 206.70 points or 1.16% lower at 17,648.40.

Among the Nifty 50 stocks, Bharti Airtel (down 4.52%), Bajaj Finance (down 4.17%), Divis Lab (down 3.70%), Tech Mahindra (down 3.05%) and HCL Tech (down 2.77%) were the top index losers.

Meanwhile, Power Grid Corporation of India (up 5.11%), Coal India (up 4.37%), IOC (up 3.33%), JSW Steel (up 2.24%) and ONGC (up 2.11%) bucked the trend.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.93% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.90%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1291 shares rose and 1876 shares fell. A total of 165 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 232,316,272 with 4,756,251 deaths. India reported 292,206 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 447,373 deaths according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

In the last 24 hours, India reported 18,795 new cases. The country posted less than 20,000 cases after 201 days. Active cases account for less than 1% of total cases, currently at 0.87%; Lowest since March 2020. India's Active caseload stands at 2,92,206; lowest in 192 days.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Websol Energy System jumped 8.34% to Rs 67.55 after the company said that the Websol Module has been approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India. The company has also received approval of its module from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and IEC 61215.

The approvals have made Websol modules eligible to be sold in the domestic market for the project approved under the various schemes of the Government of India. The company further said that there are potential export opportunities as well.

NTPC rose 4.57% to Rs 132.75 after the company won 1.9 gigawatt (GW) in the auction of CPSU Scheme-II, Tranche-III of 5 GW.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe declined while Asian stocks were mixed on Monday, as global investors monitored a spike in U.S. bond yields and Chinese growth concerns.

China is in the grip of a power crunch as a shortage of coal supplies, toughening emissions standards and strong demand from manufacturers and industry have pushed coal prices to record highs and triggered widespread curbs on usage.

Meanwhile, investors are still waiting to find out what will happen to troubled Chinese conglomerate Evergrande and its enormous mountain of debt.

European markets continued to digest the fallout of the German election on Tuesday after the vote on Sunday resulted in more uncertainty for the country. The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) gained the largest share of the vote with 25.7% by a slim margin, with Angela Merkel's right-leaning bloc of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union gaining 24.1% of the vote.

On the data front, German consumer morale for October has brightened unexpectedly, according to the GfK institute's consumer sentiment index, published Tuesday. The survey of around 2,000 Germans climbed to 0.3 points from a revised -1.1 points for September.

US stocks closed mixed Friday as the market fell back under pressure amid concerns relating to China, COVID-19 and U.S. politics.

Eyes will also be on U.S. fiscal policy with the House of Representatives due to vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill this week, while a September 30 deadline on funding federal agencies could force the second partial government shutdown in three years.

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