MUMBAI: Selling pressure continued in the Indian stock markets as the Nifty fell more than 4 per cent in the last five sessions, while the Sensex declined by 4.3 per cent in the last 5 trading sessions. The Nifty on Friday opened at 25,181.90, down 68.20 points or 0.27 per cent, while the Sensex declined by 252.85 points to 82,244.25, or 0.31 per cent.
Experts highlighted that rising geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel, along with a shift in foreign investment from India to China and Hong Kong and the SEBI circular, are all adding fuel to the decline in the Indian stock markets.
“This weekend will be tense for global markets. Crude oil went up 5 per cent yesterday on geopolitical premia. Even with China closed for a week till Oct 8th, we are seeing massive FII outflows from the Indian markets. How much of this is general risk off due to the Israel-Iran risk and how much of this is redirecting of FII flows into the Chinese markets is a matter for conjecture”, said Ajay Bagga, banking and market expert.
He further said, “Add on to that the timing of the SEBI F&O access and margin tightening. Derivatives volumes are already down 15 per cent. Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath has estimated that 60 per cent of market volumes could be impacted by the measures announced by the regulator. The big risk is if the Israel-Iran conflict broadens and more of the OPEC production and transmission of that production gets impacted”.
In the sectoral indices on the National Stock Exchange, Nifty Consumer Durables led the decline in the opening session with a fall of 0.53 per cent. Other sectoral indices were also down, with Nifty Bank down by 0.39 per cent and Nifty IT by 0.19 per cent.
In other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng continued to rally, gaining more than 2 per cent on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was also up by 0.26 per cent, along with South Korea’s KOSPI, which gained 0.38 per cent, while Taiwan’s market declined marginally by 0.14 per cent.
The US markets also closed with selling pressure on Thursday, with both Nasdaq and S&P 500 down marginally by 0.04 per cent and 0.17 per cent, respectively. (ANI)