Sensex, Nifty Open Tad Lower As Tensions Escalate At Israel-Gaza Border

(RTTNews) - Indian shares opened a tad lower on Monday amid fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East as Israel readied for ground war in Gaza.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex dropped 110 points, or 0.2 percent, to 66,173 in early trade while the broader NSE Nifty index was down 22 points, or 0.1 percent, at 19,729.

TCS fell about 1 percent after sacking 16 employees and blacklisting six staffing firms following an investigation into the bribes-for-jobs scandal.

IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Nestle India and Divis Laboratories all fell around 1 percent while ONGC, HCL Technologies, LTIMindTree, Hero MotoCorp and Coal India rose 1-2 percent.

Delta Corp plunged 8.3 percent after receiving another notice from the GST department to pay up an additional Rs 6,385 crore.

Avenue Supermarts fell 2.6 percent after quarterly profit missed consensus estimates. Indian Oil Corporation was down half a percent after it announced plans to Rs. 1,660.15 crores as equity in IndianOil NTPC Green Energy Pvt Ltd.

Adani Enterprises was down slightly after the government initiated a probe into the accounts of the group's two airports in Mumbai.

Tata Motors gained 1 percent on news it would sell 9.9 percent stake in IPO-bound Tata Technologies for Rs 1,613.7 crore to private equity fund TPG Rise Climate SF and an endowment trust belonging to Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata.

Bajaj Electricals jumped over 4 percent on bagging a contract worth Rs. 564.2 crore from Power Grid Corporation of India.

Dalmia Bharat rallied 2.8 percent after Q2 profit more than doubled.

NBCC (India) climbed 2.6 percent on securing a work order worth Rs 80 crore from the Visakhapatnam Port Authority.

Tata Steel Long Products gained 0.6 percent after narrowing its net loss for the September quarter.