Sensex crashes 1,100pts, Nifty below 23k; investors lose ₹6trn; key reasons

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty 50 snapped their two-day gaining streak on Friday, amid escalating geopolitical tensions surrounding the US-Iran conflict. This comes after US President Donald Trump extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to April 6 and said he would hold off on bombing Iran’s energy plants.

As of 10:50 AM, the BSE Sensex benchmark was down 1,102 points, or 1.46 per cent, to trade at 74,171.19 levels. The NSE Nifty50 slipped below the 23,000 mark, falling 336 points, or 1.44 per cent, to quote at 22,967 levels.

During the day, the Sensex touched a low of 75,105, down 1,168 points, or 1.55 per cent. Likewise, the Nifty 50 hit an intraday low of 22,964.90, down 342 points, or 1.5 per cent.

On the sectoral front, barring Nifty IT, all indices traded in red, with PSU Bank and Media falling more than 3 per cent each. The Nifty Auto, Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, Metal, Realty, Consumer Durables, and Chemical indices were the other major laggards.

Broader markets relatively underperformed the benchmarks, with both Nifty Midcap 100 dropping by 1.9 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 falling by 1.7 per cent.

The India VIX jumped 7.75 per cent to 26.55.

In today’s sell-off, investors lost over ₹6.5 trillion, as the total market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies slipped to ₹424.01 trillion, compared with the previous session’s all-India market capitalisation of ₹430.53 trillion.