Indian markets slide as Brent hits $99.50 and IT sell-off
Indian stock markets took a hit on Wednesday, mostly because of surging crude oil prices and a big sell-off in IT shares.
Brent crude climbed to $99.50 a barrel after tensions rose in West Asia, leading the Sensex to fall by 365.83 points to 75,211.75 and the Nifty to drop by 74.30 points to 23,560.80 around midday.
Nifty IT worst performer down 3%
IT companies like Infosys, HCL Tech, and Tech Mahindra saw their stocks tumble, pulling the Nifty IT index down 3% and making it the day's worst performer.
Meanwhile, some oil stocks actually did well.
Sudeep Shah, Head of Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, pointed out that if key support levels are broken (23,410-23,430 for Nifty and 74,600 for Sensex), things could get even bumpier.
More NSE stocks fell than rose
It wasn't just the big names: midcap and smallcap indices also slipped as worries about inflation and company earnings grew with higher oil prices.
More stocks fell than rose across the NSE today, showing that most investors were feeling cautious.