The Indian stock market, which saw strong performance over the past two weeks, has now experienced a significant downturn due to rising tensions between Iran and Israel. Following three consecutive days of declines, the market opened flat on Friday, October 4, fluctuating between gains and losses. While banking and IT stocks rallied, oil companies' shares declined amid ongoing selling pressure.
In the last trading session of the week, the market faced major declines for the fifth consecutive day, remaining highly volatile. Although the Sensex initially opened lower, it surged by 870 points and the Nifty by 235 points during the day. However, heavy profit-booking before the session ended brought the Sensex down from its peak to a loss of 1835 points, with the Nifty ultimately closing down by 520 points. The downturn was driven by sell-offs in FMCG, banking, and energy sectors.
Investors suffered substantial losses, with the market capitalization of listed shares on the BSE dropping from ₹465.05 lakh crore to ₹461.05 lakh crore, resulting in a loss of ₹3.70 lakh crore in just one session. This week, the market cap has decreased by ₹17 lakh crore.
Of the 4,054 shares traded on the BSE, 1,532 closed higher while 2,386 ended lower. Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 8 gained and 22 fell; within the 50 Nifty stocks, 13 appreciated and 37 declined. Notable gainers included Infosys (up 1.33%), Tech Mahindra (0.83%), Tata Motors (0.51%), Axis Bank (0.50%), TCS (0.42%), SBI (0.28%), and HCL Tech (0.72%). Conversely, declining stocks featured Mahindra & Mahindra (down 3.58%), Bajaj Finance (3.01%), Nestlé (2.85%), and Asian Paints (2.49%).