Indian shares tumble as COVID cases shoot past 20m

Indian shares ended at their lowest level in more than a week on Tuesday, dragged by heavyweight financials, energy and IT stocks, as domestic coronavirus cases crossed the grim milestone of 20 million.

The NSE Nifty 50 index dropped 0.94% to 14,496.5, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed 0.95% lower at 48,253.51, after swinging in choppy trading for most of the session. The surge of the highly infectious Indian virus variant has swamped the health system, forced states to enter lockdowns and ignited calls for a lockdown at the national level.

India recorded 357,229 new infections over the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 20.28 million. Officials on Tuesday halted the country's most popular sports tournament, the money-spinning Indian Premier League. Economists from several institutions have warned of the impact of the ongoing second wave of infections.

"The shock of the first quarter is likely to carry on through the rest of the year and the impact on the GDP could be around one to three percentage points," Shaun Roche, chief economist, Asia Pacific at S&P Global, told reporters, according to news agency NewsRise.

Conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd and top lender HDFC Bank Ltd were the biggest drags on the benchmark indexes, falling 2.2% and 1.9%, respectively. IT major Infosys Ltd slid 1.7%.Metal shares, which touched record highs earlier in the session on strong prices, ended 0.6% lower. The Nifty Pharma index was the worst performer, dropping 2%, with drugmaker Cipla Ltd shedding 3.5%.Stocks of state-run banks were among the best performers in the market, with the Nifty PSU Banking index jumping 3.4%.Nifty 50 component Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone closed 1% higher ahead of its quarterly results.

Meanwhile, Emirates plans to operate around 70% of its normal capacity this winter thanks to an expected increase in international travel as countries ease coronavirus restrictions and reopen borders. Emirates, the world's biggest longhaul airline before the pandemic, has been gradually rebuilding its network of 157 passenger destinations since flights were grounded in March 2020.

It is currently operating to around 120 destinations, though capacity remains limited due to the continued grounding of most of the airline's 118 Airbus (AIR.PA) A380 superjumbos. "We already have a plan to get back to almost 70% of our capacity to be recovered by winter 2021," Emirates Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim told reporters.

He did not disclose its current operating capacity, although he added that the airline had a way to go to reach 70%.Emirates has mainly been operating flights with its 151 Boeing (BA.N) 777s though with passenger demand still at very low levels globally those planes have mostly carried cargo.

Kazim said the airline expects to operate around 30 to 40 Airbus A380s over the summer, more than what it is currently operating.