Israel-Iran war hurts the Indian stock market, sending the Nifty and BSE Sensex plunging

Mumbai: As investors’ morale was negatively impacted by the growing tensions in the Middle East, equity benchmark indexes plummeted during early trading on Friday, extending their losing run to a fifth day.

The recent withdrawal of foreign funds, the increase in the price of Brent crude oil, and the drop in IT stocks all contributed to the general negative outlook for stocks.

At 71,816.46, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 672.53 points. At 21,777.65, the NSE Nifty fell 218.2 points.

Infosys saw a fall of more than 2% from the Sensex basket as the company’s revenue growth projection for FY25 fell short of market expectations.

For FY25, the business projects an operating margin of 20–22 percent and a sales increase of 1-3 percent in constant currency.

JM Financial Institutional Securities said that Infosys “guided for 1-3 percent constant currency revenue growth for FY25, missing expectations.”

The other significant laggards were Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, and Nestle India.

The beneficiaries were HDFC Bank and ITC.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul were all quoted negatively in Asian markets.

On Thursday, Wall Street finished mainly down.

The benchmark for world oil, Brent crude, increased 2.27 percent to USD 89.09 a barrel.

According to exchange statistics, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded stocks on Thursday for a total of Rs 4,260.33 crore.

The markets have been alarmed by reports of the anticipated escalation of hostilities between Iran and Israel. According to V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, “distinctive weakness in Asian markets and sharp cuts in US futures reflect heightened nervousness in equity markets.”

Meanwhile, the first round of voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections began on Friday.

On Thursday, the benchmark BSE fell 454.69 points, or 0.62 percent, to close at 72,488.99. To reach 21,995.85, the NSE Nifty fell 152.05 points, or 0.69 percent.