Crude oil surge, weak rupee trigger market rout; Sensex crashes over 1,300 points

The Indian stock market witnessed a sharp selloff on Monday amid weakening investor sentiment. A sharp rebound in crude oil prices, after hopes of a near-term peace deal in West Asia faded, emerged as a key trigger for the market decline.

At closing, the Sensex plunged 1,312.91 points, or 1.70 per cent, to settle at 76,015.28, while the Nifty declined 360.30 points, or 1.49 per cent, to close at 23,815.85. Nearly 2,779 shares declined, while 1,390 advanced.

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Volatility remained elevated, with the India VIX rising 10.10 per cent to 18.54.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Consumer Durables fell 3.73 per cent, Realty declined 3.05 per cent, PSU Bank dropped 2.52 per cent, Media slipped 2.49 per cent, and Auto was down 1.86 per cent. Bank Nifty crashed 1.6 per cent, while the Financial Services index fell 1.4 per cent.

However, Nifty Pharma, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Healthcare, and Nifty Mid-Small IT & Telecom indices managed to close in the green.

The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms declined to nearly Rs 467 lakh crore from Rs 473.5 lakh crore in the previous session.

The Indian rupee tanked 85 paise to provisionally settle at a record low of 95.34 against the US dollar.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to citizens to avoid unnecessary gold purchases for “one year”, along with other measures aimed at conserving foreign exchange reserves amid the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, jewellery stocks emerged among the top laggards.

Shares of Kalyan Jewellers India and Titan Company plunged 9.3 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively.

Realty stocks also witnessed heavy selling pressure, with Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty, Anant Raj, Prestige Estates Projects, Macrotech Developers, and DLF falling between 3 per cent and 4.2 per cent.

Ashok Leyland crashed 4.2 per cent to Rs 161 apiece, while Tata Motors, Exide Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS Motor Company, and Bosch declined more than 2 per cent each.

Meanwhile, Brent crude surged 4.17 per cent to $105.5 per barrel in futures trade, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude advanced 5 per cent to $100.17 a barrel.