By Malvika Gurung
Investing.com -- According to a prominent epidemiologist, the much-talked-about Covid-19 variant Omicron is expected to not be as lethal as the delta variant of the virus. At the same time, a chief analyst at Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE:JEF) stated that while the Omicron variant is known to be more infectious, it is not as virulent as the delta variant.
Ramanan Laxminarayan, the director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, while in an interview with Bloomberg, stated that due to the high exposure of Indians to coronavirus, paired with a high vaccination rate for a highly populous country like India, the newly-discovered Omicron variant is expected to be less lethal in India.
However, the epidemiologist added that any findings of the new variant crossing over immune defences would raise red flags.
With economies gearing up to shield themselves against the Omicron variant, Simon Powell from Jefferies bets on being highly positive on India's property market and prefers the Indian market compared to the Chinese, in terms of emerging markets, due to the latter’s regulatory policies, states a CNBC report.
Following mixed cues from Asian markets, the Indian equity benchmarks Nifty50 and BSE Sensex 30 opened flat with a positive bias on December 3. At 9:55 am, Nifty was trading 0.14% lower at 17,394.8 and the 30-scrip Sensex 0.2% higher.