Indian stock market index Sensex opened in the red, and slumped to as low as 76,424.55 shortly after the opening bell on Monday after shedding as much as 2,494 points.
NSE benchmark Nifty 50 lost a little more than 752 points to as low as 23697.80 in the first hour of trading.
SBI, Interglobe Aviation (IndiGo), Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Asian Paints were the biggest losers in the 30-pack by 10.30 am. All constituents in the Sensex were in the red.
Around the same time, Coal India was the sole gainer in the Nifty 50 index.
Climbing crude oil prices, the recent LPG price hike, and the developing geopolitical headwinds put pressure on India as investors fear potential inflation in the near term. India is the third biggest importer of crude in the world.
Brent crude already surged to a 20-month high of $86.28 per barrel last week as the Iran–Israel-US war entered its second week.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly a third of the world's LPG and roughly a fifth of its oil flows, still stands effectively disrupted.
The selloff also compounded an already bruising start to 2026 for Indian equities. The Nifty was already down 6.43 per cent YTD on Friday.
Aviation and automobile stocks continued to be under particular pressure since both sectors faced a direct double hit: higher jet fuel and petrol costs from elevated crude, and weakening consumer sentiment.
Saturday's LPG price hike of ₹60 per cylinder, the second increase in under a year, added to the overall negative sentiment.
