Stock Market Today Highlights: The Indian stock market crashed over 2% on Monday, March 30, following a slump in global markets as the US-Iran war entered its fifth week, driving up crude oil prices and inflation worries. Moreover, the Indian rupee slipped to a record low, breaching 95 per $ mark for the first time ever, drawing only brief support from the RBI’s move to tighten limits on banks’ foreign exchange positions. The rupee hit its record low of 95.20 against the U.S. dollar, down 0.3% for the day.
Sensex closed 1635 points or 2.22% lower at 71,947.55, while Nifty lost 488 points or 2.14% to settle at 22,331.40.
In intra-day deals, Sensex crashed 1,809 points, or 2.45%, to the day’s low of 71,774.13, while the Nifty 50 plunged 536 points, or 2.34%, to 22,283.85. The midcap and smallcap indices on the BSE also declined by 2.6% during the session.
Losses were led mainly by banking and financial stocks, while the Nifty Metal index remained in the green.
Investors lost over ₹9 lakh crore as the overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell to ₹412.4 lakh crore, down from ₹422 lakh crore in the previous session.
Asian Markets today
Asian markets largely ended lower on Monday as investors remained uneasy over surging oil prices and the risk of a further escalation in the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. European markets, however, traded modestly higher in early deals, while U.S. stock futures also pointed to a firmer opening.
In early European trade, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2% to 7,716.30, Germany’s DAX gained 0.1% to 22,344.39, and Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.8% to 10,041.91. U.S. futures were also in the green, with Dow futures climbing 0.4% to 45,625.00 and S&P 500 futures rising 0.5% to 6,445.00.
Across Asia, sentiment remained weak. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.8% to close at 51,885.85, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7% to 8,461.00. South Korea’s Kospi declined 3.0% to 5,277.30, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.8% to 24,750.79, and China’s Shanghai Composite recovered in the latter half of the session to end 0.2% higher at 3,923.29.
Investor anxiety has been particularly strong in Japan and other Asian economies due to the region’s heavy reliance on oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, access to which has effectively been disrupted by the war in Iran.
Oil prices resumed their upward climb after briefly easing when President Donald Trump pushed back his self-imposed deadline to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants to April 6. In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.95 to $101.59 a barrel, while Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped $3.41 to $115.98 a barrel. Before the war began, Brent had been trading at around $70 per barrel.
Markets are now increasingly preparing for a prolonged conflict, which could fuel inflation across global economies and, over time, weigh on Asia’s economic growth.
Stay tuned to this segment for live updates on the Indian stock market today.
