Indian shares struggle following new COVID-19 strain

Gulf Today Report

Indian shares fell on Monday following fresh lockdowns in the United Kingdom to curtail the spread of the new coronavirus strain.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 3.14% lower at 13,328.40, wiping out six straight sessions of gains up to Friday.

 The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 3% to 45,553.96.

 Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Securities in Mumbai said: "collective wisdom of the market does fear that the UK situation could snowball into something bigger." 

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Despite all the happenings, both indexes are still above 2% this month, aided by foreign institutional investors and COVID-19 progress.

All the main nifty sub-indexes ended down between 6.9% and 1.7%.

 The Nifty Midcap 100 Index and the Nifty Smallcap 100 Index closed lower 4.81% and 5.03%, respectively.

 India has banned flights from the UK till the end of the year, thereby, affecting shares of the Aviation industry.