(Adds opening levels)
BENGALURU, March 16 (Reuters) - Indian shares were off
to a muted start on Thursday, on fragile investor sentiment
globally after Credit Suisse, one of Europe's top lenders, added
to worries about a crisis in the financial sector.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.44% at 16,985.90,
while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.42% to 57,311.13 as of
9:35 a.m. IST.
Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged losses, with
high weightage financials falling 0.2% and
information technology stocks losing 0.6%. Metals index fell over 2% and was the top sectoral loser.
The Nifty 50 has fallen 4.4% in the past five sessions,
while the Nifty financials index has slid 5.3%.
The broad-based slide comes after weakness in global
markets, on risks of contagion in the global financial sector,
after Credit Suisse's biggest shareholder said it could not
provide the Swiss Bank with more funding.
Credit Suisse stock plunged as much as 30% to a
record low overnight. However, by the end of the day,
Switzerland's central bank had pledged to fund the company.
The weakness in sentiment gripped Asian markets. The MSCI's
broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were down 1.02%. Among individual stocks, Patanjali lost nearly 5%
after exchanges froze certain promoters and promoter group of
companies' shares.
Titan jumped nearly 2% and was among the top Nifty
50 gainers after global brokerage firm JP Morgan maintained
"overweight" on the company and termed it the preferred
discretionary play.
($1 = 82.8800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru;
Editing by Savio D'Souza and Janane Venkatraman)
