The relentless outflow of funds by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), paired with fears of impending tariffs from the US led by Donald Trump, led the market to a red streak in Monday morning trade. The BSE benchmark Sensex fell below the 75,000 mark, the lowest since June 2024.
The Sensex slumped more than 567 points to the 74,743 mark, while Nifty tanked at least 188 points to trade around 22,607 in the morning session.
The 30-share BSE benchmark index saw HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, Zomato, Tech Mahindra, TCS, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Power Grid raking in the most losses. This undercut the gains by auto giants Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra.
On Friday, FIIs offloaded about ₹3.449 crore worth of equities, taking the total funds leaving the India markets to a staggering ₹23,710 crore in February alone. This meant, more than ₹1 lakh crore left the equities market in 2025 as global trade tensions gripped the risk appetite of investors.
According to the chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, V.K. Vijayakumar, a surge in Chinese stocks could also impact the market leading to further dips. "The market is facing headwinds from relentless FII selling and global uncertainties relating to Trump tariffs," added Vijayakumar.
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Despite such outflows, US markets ended lower on Friday. Other markets such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Seoul were also trading in the red on Monday morning. Brent crude slipped 2.13 per cent, and the dollar index traded 0.39 per cent lower.
Despite the dismal show in the equities market, the rupee gained 1 paisa to 86.67 vs the US dollar in early trade on the weakening American currency.
