Sensex ends 121 points lower as Brent nears $110; Nifty posts fifth weekly fall
Indian equities closed lower on Friday, 11 September, after a sharp opening fall triggered by a surge in crude oil prices and weak Asian cues. The BSE Sensex ended at 74,781.76, down 120.83 points or 0.16 per cent, while the NSE Nifty 50 settled at 23,398.10, down 79.70 points or 0.34 per cent, according to closing data reported by Business Standard and 5paisa.
The headline numbers hide a volatile session. India TV News reported that the Sensex opened at 74,309.16, down 593.43 points, and the Nifty at 23,270.30, down 207.50 points, as investors reacted to overnight losses on Wall Street. Business Standard said the Sensex recovered about 622 points from the day's low before the close.
Crude oil is the story
The trigger for the sell-off was oil. Brent crude briefly crossed $109 a barrel during the session, a four-month high, before easing back below $105, according to 5paisa's post-market update. The US-Iran conflict and fears of supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz have kept Brent above the $100 mark for most of the week.
"Energy prices spiked significantly as Brent crude surged above $108 per barrel," Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, was quoted as saying by India TV News, pointing to the Middle East conflict as the main driver of the morning weakness.
For India, which imports the bulk of its crude, a sustained spike feeds directly into the import bill, inflation expectations and corporate margins. That link showed up in the rupee, which 5paisa reported slipped 0.1 per cent to 95.55 against the dollar, its fourth straight session of losses, with Reserve Bank of India intervention limiting the fall.
Who gained, who lost
Sector performance was uneven. Bank Nifty outperformed with a 0.24 per cent gain, helped by a rise of more than 5 per cent in Yes Bank and around 2 per cent in HDFC Bank, 5paisa said. Business Standard reported that IT, FMCG and banking stocks supported the recovery from the lows, while Hindalco, JSW Steel and Tata Steel were among the top Nifty gainers by the close.
Realty was the weakest pocket. The Nifty Realty index fell 2.70 per cent, its sixth consecutive losing session and a 10-week low. The Nifty Midcap 100 lost 0.26 per cent and the Smallcap 100 shed 0.58 per cent. Market breadth was poor for most of the day; India TV News counted 2,273 declining stocks against 460 advancing on the BSE in early trade. Among individual laggards at the open were IndiGo, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement and Axis Bank.
Foreign money keeps leaving
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers, offloading equities worth Rs 438.24 crore on Thursday, 10 September, while domestic institutions bought Rs 1,025.85 crore, according to exchange data cited by India TV News. Higher US producer inflation and strong American economic data have strengthened expectations of tighter monetary policy, pushing bond yields up and keeping the pressure on emerging-market flows, Business Standard noted.
Volatility is rising too. The India VIX climbed more than 4 per cent to move above the 12 mark on Friday. With the Nifty down 2.09 per cent for the week, this is the index's fifth consecutive weekly decline.
What happens next
Markets will watch crude oil and the Strait of Hormuz headlines through the weekend, along with the RBI's Rs 5 trillion liquidity absorption auction that settles on Friday and the direction of FII flows. A sustained cooling in Brent below $100 would offer the first real relief; until then, analysts quoted across the reports expect the indices to stay range-bound with a downward bias.