Israel Palestine War: Rs 4 Lakh Cr Eroded From Investors' Wealth In Morning Deals; Gold Shines

Indian equities started this week's trade on a negative note as the Israel-Palestine conflict dented investors' sentiments on Monday. The two benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell almost 1% each in today's early morning trade. The poor performance of Indian equities caused investors to lose nearly Rs 4 Lakh crore in the morning session.

In today's early deals, Nifty 50 opened at 19,539.45 compared to the previous close of 19,653.50, down 0.90% to the day's low of 19,480.50. Meanwhile, the benchmark index Sensex opened at 65,560.07 and fell 0.85% to the day's low of 65,434.61. On Friday, the Sensex closed at 65,995.63 points.

However, the market recovered slightly later. At 9.51 am IST today, BSE Sensex was down 0.39% at 65,739.40 points, while Nifty 50 was down 0.37% at 19,579.80 points.

The BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap index which slipped 1.5% and 2%, respectively, in the morning deals also pared losses.

The overall market cap of companies listed on the BSE declined to nearly Rs 316 lakh crore from about Rs 320 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors lose around Rs 4 lakh crore. Later, the BSE mcap also rose to about Rs 317 lakh crore as the market recovered as the day passed by.

Top Losers on NSE:

Top losers in the NSE pack at the time of writing this story were: Adani Ports (down 2.76%), BPCL (down 2.36%), Adani Enterprises (down 1.71%), and Titan (down 1.56%).

Demand For Safe Haven Asset Rises Amidst Israel-Palestine Conflict

Gold prices rose over 1% on Monday as fresh tension between Israeli and Hamas forces over the weekend raised concerns of a wider Middle East conflict and encouraged demand for safe-haven assets like bullion.

Spot gold rose 1% to $1,850.87 an ounce as of 0056 GMT, while US gold futures climbed 1.1% to $1,865.20 an ounce.

The gold rate for 10 grams of 24-carat in India stood at Rs 58,200, while the rate of the same quantity of 22-carat gold in the country was Rs 53,350 at the time of writing this article.