Markets: As Iran war, oil price hike continue, Sensex, Nifty tank 2%
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Equity market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended sharply lower by nearly 2 percent on Friday, due to the escalating conflict in West Asia and surging oil prices.
Moreover, heavy selling in global markets, persistent foreign fund outflows, and weakness in the rupee also dented investor sentiment.
Brent crude climbed 0.25 percent to USD 100.7 per barrel.
The Indian rupee fell 20 paise to close at a fresh record low of 92.45 against the US dollar.
Declining for the third day in a row this week, the 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 1,579.82 points, or 2 percent, to 74,454.60 during intra-day trade. The benchmark finally settled at 74,563.92, down 1,470.50 points, or 1.93 percent.
The 50-share NSE Nifty also tanked 488.05 points, or 2.06 percent, to end at 23,151.10.
However, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.
Since the West Asian conflict began on February 28, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 have declined 7.6 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively, causing a significant loss of investor wealth. The market capitalisation (m-cap) of all BSE-listed companies has declined by over Rs. 29.54 trillion during the period. The total market value stood at around Rs. 463.26 trillion on February 27.
Within the Sensex pack, State Bank of India saw the sharpest erosion in m-cap at around Rs. 1.07 trillion, followed by HDFC Bank (Rs. 84,493 crore), Bajaj Finance (Rs. 82,728 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs. 80,747 crore), and Larsen & Toubro (Rs. 76,979 crore).
In contrast, Coal India added around Rs. 24,312 crores in m-cap, followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Rs. 20,850 crore), NTPC (Rs. 8,485 crore), Bharat Electronics (Rs. 6,798 crore), and Power Grid Corporation (Rs. 4,604 crore).
Other markets
Among Asian markets, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index were trading lower. Overnight, Dow Jones closed with a loss of 740 points at 46,677.85 — the first instance when the 30-share blue-chip index fell below the 47,000 mark in 2026. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped more than 1.5 per cent each.
Markets in Europe were quoting in negative territory.
