SENSEX crashes 1,700 points, NIFTY50 falls below 24,350 as geopolitical tensions in Middle East escalate

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Wednesday, March 4, mirroring losses in other Asian markets as investor sentiment weakened further amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The SENSEX fell as much as 1,758 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,335 on the back of a broad-based selloff.

As of 9:22 am, the SENSEX was down 1,581 points or 2% at 78,657 and NIFTY50 index dropped 498 points or 2% to 24,370.

Israeli and US forces pounded targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes around the Gulf as the conflict spread to Lebanon, rattled global markets and sent oil prices sharply higher, news agency Reuters reported.

Four days into the war, US President Donald Trump told reporters that the US military had struck numerous Iranian naval and air targets, saying that "just about everything has been knocked out," the report added.

Back home, selling pressure was visible across the board as all the major sector gauged compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the NIFTY Metal index's over 3% fall. NIFTY Oil & Gas, Auto, Financial Services, PSU Bank, Bank, Private Bank, FMCG and Healthcare indices also fell between 1.5% and 3%.

Broader markets were also trading with a negative bias as NIFTY Midcap 100 and NIFTY Smallcap 100 indices fell 2% each.

Shares of aluminium-producing companies such as Hindalco Industries, Vedanta, and NALCO, among others, are in focus on Wednesday, March 4, as Qatalum, a major aluminium smelter jointly owned by Hydro and Qatar Aluminium Manufacturing Co., has started a controlled shutdown of its aluminium production after its gas supplier signalled a forthcoming halt in gas supply.

Larsen & Toubro was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock dropped 7% to ₹3,790 as the company has significant business interests in the Middle East region.

Tata Steel, Shriram Finance, InterGlobe Aviation, Ultratech Cement, JSW Steel, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports also- fell between 3.8% and 5%.

On the flipside, Coal India, Infosys and ONGC were among the notable gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,533 shares were declining while 277 were advancing on the NSE.