Market weekly wrap: SENSEX, NIFTY50 fall for 6th straight week; oil prices, US Fed, Tata Sons, among key triggers

The Indian equity benchmark indices extended their decline for a sixth consecutive week, with the week ended September 18 marked by volatile crude oil prices and mixed global cues.

During the week, broader markets also ended in red, with the NIFTY Midcap 100 settling flat and the NIFTY Smallcap 100 falling 0.2%.

Brent crude prices have been volatile throughout the week. It slipped nearly 1% amid rising concerns over the West Asia conflict. During the week, Brent crude touched a high of $108.75 per barrel, but it later retreated to close at $103.87 per barrel on Friday.

The swing in oil prices came amid reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude cargoes through Oman, easing concerns over supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Further, market investors also remained cautious as the US 10-year bond yield touched a high of 5.03%, its highest level since 2007, ahead of the United States Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.

The US Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), in its outcome after the September meeting, announced that the central bank has unanimously approved the rate hike move for the US economy, citing the solid expansion pace of economic activity in America.

Domestic triggers

Back home, on September 15, the government announced a revised framework for MDR, under which a 0.4% charge, capped at ₹300 per transaction, will apply to specified person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI transactions above ₹2,000. The framework also provides for a flat ₹5 charge on transactions above ₹2,000 in select sectors such as railways, telecommunications, insurance and fuel.

However, according to the finance ministry, the new UPI MDR framework will leave most consumers largely unaffected.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest corporate developments of the week was Tata Sons’ board voting to reappoint N Chandrasekaran for a third five-year term as chairman, weeks after he told the directors that he did not intend to seek reappointment.

Further, Moody’s Ratings sharply raised its forecast for India’s GDP growth in FY27 to 7%, citing the economy’s resilience amid the Middle East conflict. However, it flagged risks to inflation from elevated oil prices and El Niño.

In a statement issued after its periodic review of India’s ‘Baa3’ sovereign rating, Moody’s said the government’s “muted” fiscal policy response to the Middle East shock reflects its commitment to reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.3% of GDP in FY27, down from 4.4% in FY26.

Sectoral watch this week

Among sectors, the NIFTY India Defence and NIFTY Consumer Durables indices emerged as the top laggards during the week, declining 3.8% and 2.7%, respectively. The NIFTY Auto (-0.6%), NIFTY Private Bank (-0.5%) and NIFTY Realty (-0.5%) were the other top losing sectors of the week.

On the other hand, NIFTY Media (1.1%), NIFTY FMCG (0.9%), NIFTY Pharma (0.7%), NIFTY Metal (0.4%) and NIFTY Oil & Gas (0.01%) were among the gainers.

However, India VIX index tanked 7.3% this week, indicating that the investors believe that the worst of the declines may be over.