Mumbai: Indian equities ended the week on a sombre note on Friday, with the Sensex closing at 73,123.83, down 125.56 points, and the Nifty settling at 22,600, down 87.65 points or 0.39 per cent, in a fourth consecutive losing session for the benchmarks.
The weekly tally made for grim reading. The Nifty shed 2.4 per cent over the week and the Sensex 2.2 per cent, as selling pressure persisted through most sessions. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks fell harder than the headline indices, a sign that risk appetite has thinned well beyond the blue chips.
The immediate trigger for the latest bout of weakness sat far from Dalal Street. Brent crude surged to a six-month high of around 116.72 to 117 dollars a barrel on escalating Middle East tensions, reviving the market’s oldest fear for an oil-importing economy: costlier fuel, stubborn inflation and a wider import bill.
For India, which imports the bulk of its crude, a spike of this order is never just a commodity story. It feeds into diesel and petrol prices, transport costs, corporate margins and, eventually, the Reserve Bank’s room to manoeuvre on interest rates. Traders priced in that chain reaction through the week.
The earnings season added its own drag. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) reported a 21 per cent fall in second-quarter profit to Rs 4,863 crore, as higher crude prices squeezed refining margins. The result was a reminder that even the companies closest to the oil trade are feeling the pinch of the price surge.
Broader market breadth stayed weak, with declines outnumbering advances on most days. Foreign investors continued to sell, domestic institutions absorbed much of the supply, and retail investors watched from the sidelines as volatility kept intraday swings wide.
Technically, the Nifty’s slide has taken it further from recent highs, and the coming week will test whether buyers step in at lower levels or whether the downtrend extends. Much will depend on crude: a cooling of Middle East tensions could ease the pressure quickly, while any escalation would likely deepen it.
For now, the market’s mood is cautious rather than panicked. Valuations have corrected, domestic liquidity remains a cushion, and the earnings season still has marquee names to report. But after four straight sessions in the red and a week of steady losses, Dalal Street heads into the weekend hoping the crude shock proves temporary rather than the start of a longer storm.
