Indian Markets Decline as Oil Prices Hit Five-Month High
Indian stock indices fell on Friday, ending a one-week rally due to rising crude oil prices and foreign selling.
Indian stock markets declined on Friday, halting a week-long rally. The benchmark Sensex dropped over 1% to close at 73,123.83, losing 125.56 points. The Nifty index also fell to 22,600, down 87.65 points or 0.4%.
The decline was largely due to a surge in Brent crude oil prices, which reached a five-month high of $114.6 per barrel. Pabitro Mukherjee from Bajaj Broking said, “Benchmark indices closed in negative territory as elevated Brent crude oil prices and weak global cues continued to weigh on investor sentiment.” The rise in oil prices was influenced by recent Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia, raising geopolitical tensions.
Foreign institutional investors further contributed to the market’s downturn, withdrawing ₹3,459 crore from Indian equities on Thursday. Mukherjee noted that these outflows, along with IPO-linked inflows and domestic institutional purchases, helped mitigate some losses.
The overall market sentiment was affected by a sell-off of technology and artificial intelligence stocks in the United States, which reflected in the performance of Asian markets. U.S. indices ended lower on Thursday, with the S&P 500 declining by 1.25% and the Nasdaq falling by 2.9%.
The Indian rupee weakened for the second consecutive day, finishing at 94.40 against the dollar. During trading, it approached the 95 per dollar threshold, hitting a low of 94.97. However, foreign fund inflows linked to Jio Platforms Ltd’s IPO somewhat limited the currency’s losses.
