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Sensex, Nifty fall nearly 1% in early deals amid rising crude oil, geopolitical concerns
Jul-24-2026

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-down opening on Friday amid escalating geopolitical tensions in West Asia and a sharp surge in global crude oil prices. Brent crude traded above $100 a barrel after Houthi attacks on tankers in the Red Sea. Higher crude prices are a major concern for India because they increase inflation, widen the trade deficit, weaken the rupee and hurt corporate profitability. Sensex and Nifty were trading nearly 1% lower in early trade, with selling pressure seen across all sectoral indices. Traders were concerned amid foreign fund outflows. Provisional data available with NSE showed that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net sellers of domestic markets to the tune of Rs 2,999.23 crore on July 23. Caution also prevailed amid reports that the United States has imposed a 10% tariff on goods imported from India and 16 other countries as part of its efforts to combat the use of forced labour in the production of such items.

Sell-off in the global markets also dented sentiments in the domestic markets. All the Asian markets were trading in red tracking weakness over Wall Street overnight as the conflict in the Gulf escalated further, with the US carrying out air strikes on Iran and Tehran responding by targeting neighbouring countries hosting US military bases. Besides, Tech stocks fell again as concerns grew over the huge investments in AI hardware, factories and research, and when those investments would begin to generate returns.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75641.67, down by 749.72 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 75569.50 and 75995.73. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 2.19%, Realty down by 1.60%, Auto down by 1.39%, Consumer Discretionary down by 1.29% and Metal down by 1.18%, while there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 1.13%, TCS up by 0.25%, Sun Pharma up by 0.23%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.21% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.39%, Interglobe Aviation down by 2.25%, Eternal down by 2.18%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.01% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.68% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to improve India's outbound shipments without impacting the businesses of small retailers, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has permitted foreign direct investment (FDI) in an inventory-based model of e-commerce ‘exclusively’ for export purposes.

It said ‘In order to facilitate greater exports through easier and increased access of global markets by Indian sellers, the extant FDI Policy has been reviewed and it is decided that the restrictions on inventory-based model of e-commerce shall not apply in case of exports of domestically manufactured and/or produced goods/products’.

FDI is permitted in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and marketplace model. However, it is not permitted in Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce and inventory-based model of e-commerce where inventory of goods and services is owned by an ecommerce entity and is sold to consumers directly.

The DPIIT has inserted a clause in the policy, which states: ‘An e-commerce entity is permitted to engage in inventory-based model of ecommerce exclusively for the export of goods/products manufactured and/or produced in India as per the applicable provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023...and the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods & Services) Regulations, 2015’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23653.70, down by 215.90 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 23631.35 and 23763.55. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.25%, HCL Technologies up by 1.19%, Nestle India up by 0.55%, Tata Consumer Products up by 0.45% and TCS up by 0.37%. On the flip side, Shriram Finance down by 2.76%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.39%, Interglobe Aviation down by 2.29%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.21% and Eternal down by 2.16% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 2062.6 points or 3.11% to 64,360.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 1106.55 points or 2.47% to 43,744.26, KOSPI dropped 414.66 points or 5.84% to 6,682.23, Hang Seng declined 311.81 points or 1.25% to 24,899.00, Jakarta Composite fell 126.63 points or 2.01% to 6,188.68, Shanghai Composite weakened 46.59 points or 1.2% to 3,830.19 and Straits Times was down by 24.68 points or 0.44% to 5,557.08.
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