The Nifty opened at 22,599.05 points, and tumbled to close for the day,, making the opening level an intra-day high.
This is the sixth such instance in calendar year 2026. The instance of market hitting the day’s high at open, six times a year last occurred in 2023. In 2025, the high and open levels were the same five times and the year before, it happened thrice.
The benchmark Nifty fell 1.6% to 22,231.8 points, which is the lowest in over 13 months as investors reacted to the central banks ruled out rate cuts in the next couple monetary policy meetings. The second consecutive day of decline, erases the initial gains made in the first two sessions of the week.
Of the 3722 stocks that traded on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 2950 stocks declined and 660 advanced, signalling a considerable breadth of the weak sentiments in the market.
All 21 sectoral Nifty indices were hit, with Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal down by over 3% while Nifty IT had a moderate decline of 0.08%.
Foreign Portfolio Investors, who have sold Indian equities for the third consecutive year, dumped ₹6155.75 crore worth of stocks , rubbing salt to the wounds. The large capital outflow in a day also depreciated the domestic currency. The rupee-dollar pair traded at ₹96.88 , making the dollar expensive for the second consecutive day.
Indian market also became significantly more volatile. The volatility of the market, as measured by the India VIX index, shot up 10.2% in a session to 15.3 points, from the previous day’s close of 13.8 points
Experts say, “If the Nifty declines below 22,180 points, then it could go as low as 21,750 points.” Until crude and global yields stabilise, volatility is likely to remain elevated.