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Indian shares fell toward six-month lows on Monday, September 28, as rising oil prices added to pressure on a market that had declined for seven straight weeks. Nifty 50 fell below 23,000, while losses spread across every major sector. Investors also faced continued foreign selling ahead of September.
Nifty 50 was down 1.16% at 22,871.40 at 10 a.m. IST. BSE Sensex fell 1.18% to 73,022.60. Both benchmarks had lost nearly 6% over the previous seven weeks, according to Reuters. Monday’s decline extended that run as Brent crude futures rose 2.3% to about USD 106.70 a barrel.
Oil climbed after US President Donald Trump said he had rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the fighting. Iran said on Sunday that diplomacy was the only way to resolve its conflict with the United States and Israel. The lack of an agreement kept attention on oil shipments through the strait.
India is the world’s third-largest crude importer. Higher oil prices can raise its import bill and fuel costs for businesses. Equinomics Research founder G Chokkalingam cited oil prices, inflation and limited liquidity as concerns for domestic markets. He described the short-term outlook as ‘quite pessimistic,’ an assessment that depends in part on how those pressures develop.
All 16 major Indian stock sectors fell in early trading. The broader small-cap and mid-cap indexes each lost about 1.1%. Financial and banking stocks, which carry substantial weight in the benchmarks, declined about 1.6% each. HDFC Bank dropped 1.8%, ICICI Bank fell 1.7%, and Reliance Industries lost 1.4%.
The September decline followed a shift in foreign investment flows. Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs. 17,131 crore in the month after buying Rs. 49,831 crore across July and August, according to National Securities Depository Limited data cited by Upstox. During the period covered by the report, Nifty fell nearly 5.3% in September, while the Sensex had lost 5.36%.
The pressure was visible elsewhere in Asia as oil rose. South Korea’s Kospi and mainland Chinese indexes fell during Monday’s session, although Hong Kong’s market gained. Indian traders were also approaching the month-end expiry of Nifty and Bank Nifty derivatives contracts on Tuesday.
National Stock Exchange of India fell 1.8% to Rs. 1,761 during its third trading day on Monday. This put the stock below its Rs. 1,785 initial public offering price. It had gained 1.9% on its first day of trading the previous week.
The offering raised Rs. 22,560 crore through sales by existing shareholders. Its debut came during the wider equity decline, while analysts also pointed to concerns about trading volumes and the exchange’s valuation. NSE executives have said the exchange is regaining share in equity options as traders adjust to tighter rules.
Individual stocks moved for separate reasons. Omaxe fell 3.3% after India’s market regulator barred it from accessing the securities market for three months over minimum public shareholding rules. Allied Blenders & Distillers rose 2% after a brokerage began coverage with a buy rating. Borosil gained 3% after another brokerage raised its price target.
Also Read: Sensex, Nifty Under Pressure: Why Rising Oil Prices are a Bigger Threat to India
