Indian shares fell for a fifth straight session on Monday and plumbed three-week lows, weighed down by selling across the board with technology stocks extending losses to a sixth day.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index slid 1.25% to 17,395.50 by 0508 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 1.11% to 58,379.52. Both indexes have declined more than 6% since scaling all-time highs in October.
A global sell-off in technology stocks as investors worried about high inflation and braced for tighter monetary policies triggered a slide in Indian technology names last week.
Investors now look forward to this week's Federal Reserve meeting where the U.S. central bank is expected to confirm it would soon start draining the massive lake of liquidity that has boosted growth stocks in recent years.
"The broad-based selling we saw last week has spilled over and only after the Fed meeting this week, we'll be able to get some clarity on further moves," said Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets.
The Nifty IT sub-index fell 2.4% to hit a seven-week low, after shedding more than 7% last week.
Food delivery platform Zomato crashed 19% and online retailer Nykaa tumbled 11.2%, hitting their lowest since 2021 debuts.
Most stocks that went public recently are very expensive and a much needed correction is now underway, Gandhi said.
The Nifty metal sub-index slid as much as 2.78%. Shares of JSW Steel fell 4.2% after the company's quarterly net profit missed analysts' estimates.
Realty stocks fell 3.1% to a four-week low, while pharma stocks slipped 1.9% to a nine-month trough.
Among the few gainers, ICICI Bank rose as much as 1.5% after the private-sector lender beat https://bit.ly/3Ix6gco profit expectations on the back of strong loan growth and lower bad loan provisions.
Investors were awaiting the earnings reports of companies including Axis Bank and HDFC Asset Management due later in the day.
(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Subhranshu Sahu)