Sensex down by over 1,000 points, Nifty slumps to 25,451: amid fears over escalation of Middle East crisis

The Indian stock market plunged in early trade on Thursday with the Sensex dipping by 1,264.2 points to 83,456.

The Nifty 50 index was also down 0.97% at 25,548.4 points.

Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined at the open, with realty and auto stocks leading the losses. The decline in the benchmarks are in-line with Asian peers, which dropped 1.5% on the day.

This comes amid fears of escalation of the conflict in the Middle East which has been amplified by the attack on Israel by Iran.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Maruti, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were the major laggards.

“Domestic markets are likely to witness high selling pressure due to intensified fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East as it could lead to potential supply disruptions of oil, a key commodity imported by India,” analysts at Centrum Institutional Equities were quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

Among individual stocks, consumer goods firm Dabur lost 6% after it forecast its first quarterly revenue decline since 2020.

Most brokerage stocks, such as Motilal Oswal Financial Services and 5Paisa Capital, fell about 2% each, while Geojit Financial and SMC Global lost about 1% each after India’s markets regulator tightened rules for equity derivatives trading.