As the war in West Asia intensifies, so does the sell-off in the Indian stock market, with key indices suffering another 2% drop in Monday’s session, March 23, dragging them to their lowest levels since April 2025.
The constant missile exchanges in the Gulf region, now entering the fourth week, have pushed several domestic stocks to multi-year lows. Crude-sensitive stocks, in particular, are bearing the brunt of the selling, wiping out billions in investor wealth and positioning the Nifty 50 for its worst monthly performance since March 2020.
The Nifty 50, which opened with a sharp gap-down and showed no signs of recovery toward the close, fell 629 points, or 2.72%, to settle at 22,485. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex also declined 2.5% to close at 72,669.
The broader market faced even deeper cuts, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 plunging nearly 4%, taking their year-to-date losses to around 15%.
All major sectoral indices ended in the red, with the Nifty Consumer Durables index taking the biggest hit, plunging 5%.
The Nifty Metal and Nifty Realty indices also dropped over 4.5% each. This was followed by the Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Chemicals, and Nifty Oil & Gas indices, all of which declined over 2.5%. The Nifty IT index was the only one to limit losses, closing marginally lower by 0.27%.
US President Donald Trump has set a Monday deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face potential strikes on its power infrastructure. Iran has warned it would retaliate by targeting energy and water assets across the Gulf. Over the weekend, both Israel and Iran intensified their attacks on each other, keeping crude oil prices elevated.
(more to come)