Indian shares fall over 1% on Omicron surge threat

Reuters

Published: December 20, 2021 10:16 AM IST

A woman walks past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, January 31, 2020. File Photo: REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/

Bengaluru: Indian shares fell on Monday as a surge in global Omicron COVID-19 cases threatened to roil economic recovery, while shares of Future Group companies jumped after the country's antitrust agency suspended its deal with Amazon.com.

The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 1.4% to 16,745 by 0347 GMT and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.4% at 56,235.04.

The Netherlands went into lockdown on Sunday and the possibility of more COVID-19 restrictions being imposed ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays loomed over several European countries as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly.

Shares of Future Retail jumped 18% after India's antitrust agency suspended Amazon.com's 2019 deal with Future Group on Friday, potentially denting the US e-commerce giant's attempts to block the sale of Future's retail assets to Reliance Industries.

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