New Delhi: Sensex and Nifty fell sharply in early trade on Monday as heavy selling in financial stocks followed disappointing quarterly numbers and a jump in crude prices stoked concerns about an energy shock.
The 30‑share BSE Sensex dropped 523.22 points to 77,628.23, while the NSE Nifty50 slid 134.10 points to 24,198.25 in opening deals.
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HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were among the worst hit, each plunging nearly 5% after releasing quarterly results over the weekend. "HDFC Bank has disappointed, particularly on the NIM front," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.
Other blue‑chip laggards included Kotak Mahindra Bank, InterGlobe Aviation, Maruti and Bajaj Finance. Countering some losses, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were trading higher. Reliance — India’s most valuable company — rose about 1% after reporting record core profit and EBITDA for the June quarter, driven by robust oil‑to‑chemicals and telecom performance.
Global oil prices climbed on renewed geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran, with Brent crude up 2.41% at USD 90.22 a barrel. "The strongest headwind is Brent crude spiking above USD 90 on escalating tensions between the US and Iran. If this trend continues, India’s vulnerability to an energy shock will resurface with negative implications for the rupee and FPI flows," Vijayakumar added.
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He noted a partial offset from cooling momentum in AI‑linked trades in the US, South Korea and Taiwan, which could make Indian equities attractive to foreign portfolio investors.
Regional markets were mixed: Shanghai and Hong Kong traded higher, while South Korea’s KOSPI plunged 4.35%. US markets had ended lower on Friday.
Domestic flows showed foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 376.41 crore on Friday. On that day, the Sensex had rebounded 964.58 points (1.25%) to 78,151.45, and the Nifty had climbed 261.55 points (1.09%) to 24,334.30.
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