NEW DELHI: Indian bluechip indices were trading with cuts on Monday amid a risk-off environment, dragged by selling in auto and bank heavyweights. However, some realty and IT names provided support.

The rapidly spreading Omicron variant is raising the risks in the market. A casualty of it was the cryptocurrency market over the weekend. Global signals are also negative after Wall Street ended the previous session in the red with Nasdaq leading the fall, analysts said.
“Domestic markets are expected to trade flat with eyes set on RBI's two-day monetary policy meet, which kicks off today. The Street expects the central bank to leave the rates unchanged despite the inflationary pressure building up in the economy,” said Sageraj Bariya, Vice President - Institutional Sales, East India Securities.
How are bluechips doing
After opening in the red, benchmark indices remained subdued. At 9.32 am, BSE flagship Sensex was down 186 points or 0.32 per cent to 57,511. NSE benchmark Nifty erased 55 points or 0.32 per cent to 17,141.
In the 50-share pack Nifty, Tech Mahindra was the biggest gainer, up 0.82 per cent. Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel, 

Britannia

IndusInd Bank was the top loser in the pack, down 2.15 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors, ONGC, NTPC, Indian Oil, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors and Bajaj Finance were among other stocks that traded in the red.

“Long-term investors can use market corrections to buy high-quality stocks in IT, financials, telecom and cement,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

FACTORS DRIVING MARKETS
Taper to accelerate: Fed policymakers look likely to accelerate the wind-down of their asset purchases when they meet later this month as they respond to a tightening labour market and move to open the door to earlier rate hikes they had projected.

Omicron spreads legs: Omicron remained a concern as the variant spread to about one-third of US states, though there were reports from South Africa that cases there had mild symptoms. The cases have also surged manifold in India.
Yields fall: For now, short-term Treasury yields are being pushed higher but the longer-end has rallied as investors wager an earlier start to hikes will mean slower economic growth and inflation over time and a lower peak for the funds' rate. 10-year US yields dived almost 13 basis points last week and were last at 1.38 per cent, shrinking the spread over two years to the smallest this year.
Broader markets
Broader market indices were trading mixed, outperforming their headline peers in morning trade. Nifty Smallcap was up 0.18 per cent while Nifty Midcap declined 0.06 per cent. Broadest index on NSE, Nifty 500 was down 0.16 per cent.

Vodafone Idea, Aditya Birla Capital, Godrej Properties, Trident, Happiest Minds and BEML were gainers from the space while Burger King, VIP Industries, JB Chemical and Pharma, JSW Energy, Bharat Forge and Emami were under selling pressure.

Global markets
Early trade was sluggish as MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.7 per cent, even as the government considered raising its economic growth forecast to account for a record $490 billion stimulus package.
Wall Street was looking to rally after Friday's late slide, with S&P 500 futures adding 0.4 per cent and Nasdaq futures 0.1 per cent.