On Friday morning, Indian markets opened in the red, reversing Thursday’s gains. Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on spiking crude oil prices and escalations in the West Asia conflict.
The Sensex fell as much as 742 points to hit a morning low of 74,160.16 while the Nifty shed around 246 points to a morning low of 23,231.40, undoing the 0.20 per cent improvement it logged in Thursday’s closing‑auction‑led recovery.
Brent crude has now climbed to its highest level since May, trading near $108.7 dollars, with the ongoing US–Iran conflict continuing to disrupt oil flows from the Middle East.
Market watchers and analysts are of the opinion that a $110-per-barrel crude could spell trouble for India, with inflation concerns mounting and adding pressure to the rupee.
Iran‑supported Houthi forces have also reportedly seized Yemen’s port city of Mocha and advanced along the Red Sea coast, threatening a key shipping corridor even as tanker attacks intensified around the Strait of Hormuz.
Fifteen of sixteen major sectoral indices declined: Financials were down 1.4 per cent, Metals down 2.8 per cent, and auto stocks lost 1.3 per cent. The broad-based selloff hinted that the market movement was based on this overall sentiment rather than domestic market factors.
Small‑cap and mid‑cap indices also fell even more sharply, losing 1.2-1.4 per cent.
Bajaj Finance, IndiGo, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and Axis Bank were among the session’s biggest losers. However, IT majors Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, and Infosys, along with Bharti Airtel and ITC, traded in the green.
Adding to the mix was the spike in Indian government bond yields. Benchmark 10‑year yield crossed 7 per cent to hit a new three‑month high.
This also meant that the markets are now expecting a US Fed rate hike ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
On Thursday, foreign institutional investors pulled out over ₹438 crore. If the markets stay red by closing today, it would mean Nifty and Sensex declined for a fifth consecutive week.
