Mumbai, March 23 – The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty in the Indian stock market declined by nearly 3% on Monday, in line with a weak trend in Asian markets due to rising tensions in the Middle East, which is now in its fourth week.
Rising crude oil prices, persistent outflows of foreign funds, and a weakening rupee have also impacted investor sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 1,972.77 points or 2.64%, closing at 72,560.19. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped by 636.35 points or 2.75%, closing at 22,478.15.
Among the 30 companies in the Sensex, InterGlobe Aviation, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Trent, Bharat Electronics, and Adani Ports were among the worst performers.
HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, and Power Grid were the top performers.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose by 1.24% to USD 113.6 per barrel.
In Asian markets, South Korea's benchmark Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index all declined sharply. The Kospi fell by over 6%.
The US market ended significantly lower on Friday.
According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 5,518.39 crore on Friday. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought stocks worth Rs 5,706.23 crore. Foreign investors have pulled out Rs 88,180 crore (about USD 9.6 billion) from Indian equities so far this month.
On Friday, the Sensex rose by 325.72 points, or 0.44%, to close at 74,532.96. The Nifty edged higher by 112.35 points, or 0.49%, to end at 23,114.50.
