The Indian stock markets continue to face selling pressure, with the Nifty declining by more than 4% over the last five sessions and the Sensex falling by 4.3% during the same period. On Friday, the Nifty opened at 25,181.90, down by 68.20 points or 0.27%, while the Sensex dropped 252.85 points to 82,244.25, marking a 0.31% decline.
Market analysts point to rising geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel, alongside foreign investments shifting from India to China and Hong Kong, as major factors driving the ongoing market decline. The recent circular by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has also contributed to the downward trend.
Ajay Bagga, a banking and market expert, said, “This weekend will be tense for global markets. Crude oil increased by 5% yesterday due to geopolitical risk. Even with China closed for a week until October 8, we are seeing large foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows from Indian markets. The exact impact of the Israel-Iran risk versus the redirection of FII flows into Chinese markets remains uncertain.”
Bagga added, “On top of that, the timing of SEBI’s futures and options (F&O) access and margin tightening is affecting market volumes. Derivatives volumes are already down by 15%. Zerodha’s Kamath estimated that 60% of market volumes could be impacted by the regulator’s measures. The larger concern is if the Israel-Iran conflict escalates, further disrupting OPEC’s production and supply chains.”
In sectoral performance on the National Stock Exchange, Nifty Consumer Durables led the decline in early trading with a fall of 0.53%. Other sectoral indices also faced losses, with Nifty Bank down 0.39% and Nifty IT declining by 0.19%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index continued to rally, rising over 2% on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.26%, while South Korea’s KOSPI increased by 0.38%. Taiwan’s market, however, saw a marginal decline of 0.14%.
In the US, markets closed under selling pressure on Thursday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 ending the day with slight losses of 0.04% and 0.17%, respectively.
(ANI)