Sensex declines 600 points: What's behind today's fall?
What's the story
The Indian stock market witnessed a sharp decline on Wednesday, with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty falling by over 0.7%. The fall comes as oil prices surged amid renewed tensions between the US and Iran. At around 9:35am, Sensex was down by 591 points or 0.76% to trade at 77,589 while Nifty fell by 180 points or 0.74% to trade at 24,218.
Market performance
How are other stocks performing?
The broader market indices also reflected a similar trend, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 both falling by nearly 0.5% each. Among the top losers on Sensex were UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and IndiGo shares which tumbled by up to 3%. Other major companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Bharat Electronics (BEL), and Reliance Industries (RIL) saw their shares fall nearly by up to 1%.
Investor activity
FIIs continued their buying spree
Despite the bearish sentiment on Dalal Street, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree for the fifth consecutive session. They purchased Indian equities worth over ₹393 crore, according to provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Meanwhile, the Indian rupee opened lower at 95.1725 against the US dollar as compared to its previous close of 94.9675.
Oil market
US airstrikes on Iran raise oil prices
The surge in oil prices comes after the US conducted airstrikes on Iran and reinstated sanctions on Iranian crude sales. Brent crude futures gained 5.49% to $75.94 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude increased by 2.84% to $72.44 per barrel in early trade today. The US Central Command said these strikes were in retaliation for Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.