On the last trading day of last year, Dec 31, 2025, the 30-pack BSE Sensex closed 0.64 per cent higher to settle at 85,220.60 while the NSE Nifty spiked 0.74 per cent to end at 26,129.60, recovering from four days of decline. Investors, analysts, and market watchers alike saw this as a good omen to begin 2026 with a major gain. Looking back, they had no idea what the year was going to bring them.
The Sensex on Tuesday saw its losses cross the 10,000-point mark in morning trade, after it slid to as low as 75,121.66. This meant the benchmark shed around 10,099 points.
The Nifty, on the other hand, slid to a 23,577.85 intraday low, marking a loss of 2,571 points year-to-date.
From Monday's red close, the Sensex lost 893 points, and the Nifty shed 238 points. On Tuesday morning, only Tata Steel, NTPC, and Bharti Airtel were in the green. The remaining 27 constituents were seeing red, with tech major TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and HCL Tech becoming the biggest laggards, shedding 3.5–4 per cent of their stock value steadily.
The Middle East crisis that was triggered in February this year after US–Israel forces attacked Iran, forcing the Arab nation to retaliate and eventually escalating the conflict to a war that included the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, seems to be weighing heavily on investor sentiment.
Sunday’s appeal by PM Narendra Modi to reduce gold buying as well as reduce fuel consumption added to the fears, with some reading it as a confirmation of the Hormuz closure seriously affecting the country's overall economy.
The Indian currency also hit an all-time low, after Brent crude kept itself around $105 a barrel over the past few sessions, triggering persistent foreign fund outflows. The rupee opened on Tuesday at 95.50 to the dollar and extended its fall to as low as 95.6250 vs the greenback.
