Soon after the opening bell on Monday, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell sharply. The 30-pack BSE Sensex fell as low as 797 points to an intraday low of 80,654.26 while the NSE Nifty shed to as much as a 24,526.15 low.
An array of factors compounded to the morning mayhem, especially after foreign outflows continued to gain steam following the Friday trend, renewing concerns about global trade.
FIIs offloaded ₹6,449.74 crore worth of equities on Friday, despite becoming net buyers the rest of last week.
In the Sensex, major laggards were HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, L&T, Titan, TCS, and Tata Steel. At open, Hindustan Unilever, Adani Ports, Mahindra, IndusInd Bank and Nestle saw marginal gains, but they were offset by the losers.
Major Asian markets were also trading in the red, including Kospi (South Korea), Nikkei 225 (Japan), and Hang Seng (Hong Kong). Mainland China markets were closed for holiday.
US President Donald Trump doubling down on steel and aluminium imports to the American market did not help matters, either.
V.K. Vijayakumar of Geojit Investments said, “President Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium is a clear message that the tariff and trade scenario will continue to be uncertain and turbulent. This headwind will impact markets.”
“Asian markets and US index futures have come under pressure due to rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, as well as renewed trade frictions following US President Donald Trump’s decision to double tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent,” pitched Vikas Jain of Reliance Securities.
Moreover, oil prices soared as trade tensions intensified, aggravated by the latest developments in the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
In the equity market, investors appeared to be heavily booking profits in key stocks such as HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries, pulling down the Sensex. There seemed to be a steady flow of investments from large-cap stocks to mid-caps and small-caps.
One such breakout stock was Oriental Carbon, jumping as high as ₹210.60 apiece in the morning session (up more than 5 per cent) from the previous close of ₹199.57 per share. The Kolkata-based Arvind Goenka-led chemicals manufacturer could also be seeing a cyclic move as it did last year in June-July.
Two-wheeler giant Bajaj Auto on Monday posted an 8 per cent year-on-year jump in total sales ( including exports) to 3,84,621 units for May 2025. Total domestic sales were at 2,25,733 units for May 2025 versus 2,25,087 vehicles a year ago.
Despite the bump in sales, shares slumped to about 2 per cent to as low as ₹8420 per share on Monday morning versus Friday’s close of ₹8607 apiece.
