NIFTY50 falls for seventh straight session, SENSEX drops 326 points; rising crude dents sentiment

The Indian equity benchmarks ended lower on Wednesday, August 19, with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) benchmark NIFTY50 index falling for a seventh straight session. Investor sentiment remained subdued as crude oil prices surged in global markets stoking fears of inflation, analysts said.

The SENSEX fell as much as 413 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,025 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and ITC.

The SENSEX ended 326 points lower at 76,910 and NIFTY50 index declined 77 points to close at 24,078.

In the last seven trading sessions, the NIFTY50 has fallen 2% and the SENSEX has dropped 2.07%.

Brent crude futures rose 1.5% to $92.37 per barrel on the back of uncertainty over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz ‌and ongoing supply disruptions.

Selling pressure was broad based as 13 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the NSE ended lower led by the NIFTY Media index's nearly 1% fall. NIFTY Auto, FMCG, Financial Services, Pharma, Healthcare, and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.2% and 0.6%.

On the other hand, IT and select consumer durables shares witnessed buying interest.

Broader markets also faced selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.21% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index dropped 0.51%.

Among the individual shares, RailTel Corporation surged as much as 7% to hit an intraday high of ₹297.60 after the company secured an extension of a work order.

Worth ₹166.80 crore, the Navratna public sector undertaking (PSU) said it received a one-year extension of the work order from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for providing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) through RailTel.

The order is expected to be completed by February 9, 2027. The latest order marks RailTel’s fourth order win in August 2026.

Shares of Adani Total Gas, Indraprastha Gas and Mahanagar Gas surged after government approved an incentive scheme to accelerate domestic piped natural gas (PNG) connections from September 1, 2026.

The scheme aims to speed up the conversion of unbilled PNG connections into active, billed households while encouraging city gas distribution (CGD) companies to expand their networks into new areas.

CG Power and Industrial Solutions shares fell as much as 4% after the company informed exchanges that there was suspected cyber event at its IT systems.

Max Healthcare was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock dropped 1.72% to close at ₹997. Coal India, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, ITC, Jio Financial Services, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Apollo Hospitals, Dr Reddy's Labs, ICICI Bank and Hindustan Unilever also fell between 0.7% and 1.7%.

On the flip side, HCL Technologies, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, Eternal, Wipro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Consumer Products, Infosys, TCS and Titan were gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 2,173 shares ended lower while 1,320 closed higher on the NSE.