Indian stock market slumped in Monday morning trade on May 11 after US President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s peace-talks response as "totally unacceptable", triggering a jump in crude oil prices and renewing fears of further escalation in West Asia.
The BSE Sensex shed 1162 points to as low as 76.165.57 while the NSE Nifty 50 tanked 330 points to hit an intra-day low of 23,845.30. Both benchmark indices were consistently in the red through the first hour of trade.
Titan, IndiGo, SBI, Eternal, and Airtel emerged as the biggest Sensex losers. Only the IT stocks, TC, Infosys, and HCL Tech, along wth Sun Pharma and NTPC, were trading in the green.
Brent crude hit $105.7 per barrel in the morning, up 4.32 per cent.
Trump’s latest response to the peace talks rekindled fears of further disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to exercise restraint on the use of petrol, gas, diesel, and similar petroleum products seems to have added to the overall negative sentiment.
The Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas recently confirmed that LPG supply continued to be affected by the geopolitical situation unravelling in West Asia. But it also assured the public that total commercial LPG allocation is now at about 70 per cent of pre-crisis levels, and that priority is being given to the supply of LPG to domestic households.
"We have to save foreign exchange by any means," Modi had added.
On Friday, exchanges revealed that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded ₹4,110.60 crore worth of equities.
The latest slump added to the losses on Friday, when the Sensex closed 516 points lower and the Nifty 150 points down.
