Markets slump on surging oil, West Asia flare-up; Sensex drops 561 points
Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Adani Ports and Eternal among the winners
Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled on Tuesday as a sharp surge in crude oil prices due to the renewed flare-up in West Asia dented investors’ sentiment.
Fresh foreign fund outflows and the falling rupee also put pressure on the markets.
After three days of gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 561.46 points, or 0.72 per cent, to settle at 77,054.94. During the day, it tumbled 614.92 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 77,001.48.
The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 158.95 points, or 0.66 per cent, to end at 24,052.05.
From the Sensex pack, HCL Tech declined the most by 4.42 per cent. Bajaj Finserv, InterGlobe Aviation, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro were also among the major laggards.
Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Adani Ports and Eternal were the winners.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, surged 4.26 per cent to USD 86.85 per barrel.
“Domestic equities came under renewed pressure as escalating West Asia tensions drove crude oil prices sharply higher, reviving fears that global energy supply will further delay a recovery in India’s corporate earnings,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.
The pain was compounded by the rupee breaching the 96-per-dollar mark, fanning concerns over imported inflation, he added.
Meanwhile, wholesale price inflation shot up to 9.87 per cent in June, from 9.68 per cent in May, led by a sharp spike in prices of food and non-food items.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index rebounded and ended in positive territory. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also settled higher.
Markets in Europe were trading lower.
US markets ended in negative territory on Monday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,062.27 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
On Monday, the Sensex went up by 47.01 points, or 0.06 per cent, to settle at 77,616.40. The Nifty eked out a marginal gain of 4.10 points, or 0.02 per cent, to end at 24,211.
