NIFTY50 drops below 24,850, SENSEX crashes 1,100 points as US, Israel attack on Iran intensifies

The Indian equity benchmarks nosedived on Monday, March 2, mirroring steep losses in global markets after geopolitical tensions in West Asia intensified after United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran over the weekend that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The SENSEX dropped as much as 2,743 points to hit an intraday low of 78,544 and NIFTY50 index touched and intraday low of 24,645 before staging a recovery from lower levels.

As of 9:25 am, SENSEX was down 1,050 points at 80,236 and NIFTY50 index dropped 320 points to 24,860.

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East escalated sharply from Saturday following coordinated military strikes involving the United States and Israel against Iran, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

The strikes led to the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, escalating geopolitical tensions and deepening global economic uncertainty.

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran on Sunday, and Iran responded with more missile barrages, a day after the killing of Khamenei pitched the Middle East and the global economy into deepening uncertainty.

The escalation has unsettled global markets, pushing investors toward safe-haven assets such as gold while driving volatility in crude oil prices amid worries about supply constraints and wider economic fallout.

Back home, selling pressure was broad based as most of the sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange, barring the measures of defence and metal companies, were trading lower led by the NIFTY Oil & Gas index's over 1.5% fall after crude oil price in international markets surged following tensions in the Middle East.

NIFTY Realty, Consumer Durables, PSU Bank, Pharma, FMCG, Financial Services, Bank and Auto indices also fell between 0.5% and 2%.

On the flip side, defence and metal shares were witnessing buying interest. NIFTY India Defence index surged nearly 2% and NIFTY Metal index climbed 0.8%.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.8% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index fell 1.06%.

InterGlobe Aviation was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell nearly 4% to ₹4,650 after it suspended flight operations in Middle East.

Larsen & Toubro fell 3.6% as the company has significant presence in the middle east region.

Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Tata Motors PV, Adani Enterprises, Bajaj Finance, Jio Financial Services and Maruti Suzuki also declined between 1.4% and 2.4%.

On the other hand, Bharat Electronics, Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and HDFC Life were among the notable gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,392 shares were declining while 440 were gaining on the NSE.