Sensex Falls 479 Points, Nifty Slips Near 23,900 Amid Weak Asian Markets And Rising Crude Oil Prices

Indian stock markets ended lower in today’s trading session as rising crude oil prices and mixed trends across Asian markets weighed on investor sentiment.

At the close of trade, the BSE Sensex declined 479.26 points to settle at 76,009.70, while the NSE Nifty50 fell 118 points to close at 23,913.70. Notably, the Nifty ended the session near the crucial 23,900 support level.

During intraday trade, the Sensex touched a high of 76,627 points, while the Nifty climbed to an intraday high of 24,089.8 before losing momentum.

Market Breadth Remained Mixed

Around 2,057 stocks advanced during the session, while 1,973 shares declined and 165 remained unchanged, indicating a mixed market breadth despite benchmark weakness.

Auto And Select Banking Stocks Supported Markets

Among the Sensex gainers were Eternal, Infosys, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bharat Electronics and Maruti Suzuki.

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles emerged as one of the top gainers in the Nifty50 index after rising nearly 3 percent. Rival automobile companies Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki also gained around 1 percent each.

Adani Enterprises continued its strong momentum for the third consecutive trading session and rose about 3 percent, touching its 52-week high during the session.

Consumer goods companies also retained their early gains, with shares of Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Consumer Products rising between 0.5 percent and 0.7 percent.

Financial And Healthcare Stocks Dragged Markets Lower

On the losing side, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trent and Titan ended lower.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise was the worst-performing stock in the Nifty50 index, declining 1.6 percent. Rival healthcare company Max Healthcare Institute also slipped 0.6 percent.

Financial stocks witnessed selling pressure as SBI Life Insurance, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank fell between 0.8 percent and 1.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Adani Total Gas surged nearly 10 percent to touch a six-month high of Rs 731.40 per share, becoming one of the top gainers in both the Nifty200 and Nifty500 indices.

Container Corporation of India turned out to be one of the biggest laggards in the Nifty200 index after falling more than 7 percent.

Global Factors Continue To Influence Markets

Investor sentiment remained cautious amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia and rising crude oil prices.

US President Donald Trump stated today that negotiations with Iran regarding ending the conflict were progressing. However, market participants remained concerned as there were no immediate signs of the conflict ending soon. Fresh US “defensive” strikes in southern Iran also created uncertainty around the ongoing negotiations.

Asian Markets Showed Mixed Trends

Among Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indices ended higher, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 and China’s Shanghai SSE Composite closed lower.

According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 821.75 crore on Monday.

Global Brent crude oil prices rose 1.90 percent and traded at 97.97 US dollars per barrel, adding pressure on global equity markets.