Sensex and Nifty Fall Over 1% Amid West Asia Tensions and Surge in Crude Oil Prices

Indian benchmark indices — BSE Sensex and NIFTY 50 — ended more than 1% lower amid rising geopolitical tensions in West Asia and a sharp surge in crude oil prices.

Market Opening and Closing Figures

In early trade, the 30-share Sensex plunged 2,743.46 points to 78,543.73, while the 50-share Nifty dropped 575.15 points to 24,603.50.

At market close:

• Sensex fell 1,048.34 points to settle at 80,238.85

• Nifty declined 312.95 points to close at 24,865.70

Out of 3,296 traded stocks, 639 advanced, 2,580 declined, and 77 remained unchanged.

Sectoral Performance

Most sectoral indices declined by up to 2%, including auto, consumer durables, oil & gas, financials, energy, and chemicals. Only metal stocks showed relative resilience.

Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices also fell up to 1.5%.

Major Stock Movers

On the Sensex, shares of InterGlobe Aviation, Larsen & Toubro, Adani Ports, Maruti, Asian Paints, and Bajaj Finserv declined.

Meanwhile, Bharat Electronics, Sun Pharma, and ITC gained.

On the Nifty, L&T, InterGlobe Aviation, Adani Ports, Tata Motors (Passenger Vehicles), and Adani Enterprises fell.

On the gaining side were Bharat Electronics, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Hindalco.

Global Market Impact

Escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, along with growing involvement of the United States, triggered fresh volatility in global markets.

Brent crude prices surged 8.34% to $78.95 per barrel, increasing concerns over inflation and supply disruptions.

Asian markets also reflected weakness:

• Japan’s Nikkei-225 fell over 1%

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined more than 2%

• Shanghai’s SSE Composite ended higher

• South Korean markets remained closed due to a holiday

European markets traded sharply lower, and US markets had closed in the red on Friday.

Foreign Investment Data

According to exchange data:

• Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹7,536.36 crore last Friday

• Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought shares worth ₹12,292.81 crore

Holiday Announcement

Stock markets will remain closed on March 3 on account of the Holi festival.

IPO Listings

Shriram Twistex shares debuted at ₹68 per share, a 34.61% discount to the issue price, and eventually ended 29% lower.

Clean Max shares were listed at ₹960 per share at an 8.83% discount and later declined 18.5% by market close.

Overall, heightened geopolitical tensions, rising crude oil prices, foreign fund outflows, and weakness in the Indian rupee significantly impacted investor sentiment, leading to broad-based declines in Indian equities.