Indian shares fall over 1% on Omicron surge threat
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 U.S. e-commerce giant's attempts to block the sale of Future's retail assets to Reliance Industries.
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)