RIYADH: Indian shares were trading lower on Tuesday and looked set to snap a four-day rally, weighed by metal stocks amid a decline in broader Asian equities and oil prices.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.49 percent at 17,255.80, as of 0505 GMT, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.44 percent to 57,861.69.
Top lender State Bank of India offered a shot in the arm to Nifty 50 index, rising 1 percent, while aluminum and copper manufacturer Hindalco Industries was among the top losers, declining 3.5 percent.
Among other individual stock moves, food delivery firm Zomato Ltd. jumped as much as 18.7 percent after it reported a smaller quarterly loss late on Monday.
India’s 1-5-year OIS spread drops to lowest in 29 months
The spread between India’s one-year and five-year overnight indexed swaps dropped to its lowest level in over 29 months on Tuesday as bets of aggressive rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of India ebbed.
The one-year swap rate was trading at 6.10 percent, while the five-year swap rate has fallen more to 6.24 percent, with the spread dropping to 14 basis points, which is the lowest since March 2020.
The spread had been above 50 bps at the end of June, and had jumped to as high as 160 bps in April in anticipation of a prolonged rate hike cycle.
“The fact that the Federal Reserve may find it tough to raise rates aggressively is having a cascading effect across asset classes,” a trader with a private bank said.
The RBI monetary policy decision is due on Aug. 5, with views on the quantum of rate increase split between 25 basis points and 50 basis points, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
The RBI has hiked its repo rate by 90 bps since May.
SpiceJet clears all dues with Airports Authority of India
Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd. said on Tuesday it had cleared all its outstanding principal dues with the Airports Authority of India, which owns and operates airports in the country.
The airline will revert to an advance payment mechanism for its daily operations, it added, days after the aviation regulator ordered the low-cost airline to slash its approved fleet to 50 percent this summer for eight weeks citing safety snags.
(With input from Reuters)
