SENSEX drops over 350 points, NIFTY50 below 23,900 as surging crude dents sentiment

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Thursday, July 23, as investors sentiment remained negative as surging crude prices reignited fears that inflation could impact earnings going ahead.

The SENSEX fell as much as 410 points and NIFTY50 dropped below its important psychological level of 23,900 to touch an intraday low of 23,876 dragged down by weakness in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma and Axis Bank.

As of 9:23 am, the SENSEX was down 202 points at 76,553 and NIFTY50 index declined 52 points to 23,946.

Brent crude futures rose as much as 2.5% to hit an intraday high of $96.42 per barrel after US Central Command said that US forces launched more strikes against Iranian military targets on Wednesday at the Commander in Chief's direction.

"The mission will continue to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters," it said.

It also reiterated that Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. "The international waterway remains open for transit regardless of IRGC threats and attacks. Commercial vessels continue to use the strait with S. military support. Since early May, American forces have helped more than 900 ships transit the strait," the defence force said.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%, China's Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.02%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.1% and South Korea's KOSPI surged 2.6%.

Back home, eight of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY Pharma index's 0.7% decline. NIFTY Healthcare, Bank, Financial Services, Realty, IT, PSU Bank, Private Bank, and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.3% and 0.6%.

On the other hand, select auto, consumer durables, metal and FMCG shares were witnessing buying interest.

Broader markets were also facing a mild selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.24% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index slipped 0.15%.

Among the individual shares, NTPC Green Energy shares rose as much as 5.25% to hit an intraday high of ₹96.10 after the company said that its net profit in June quarter rose 55% to ₹305 crore and its revenue from operations advanced 21% to ₹1,107 crore.

Dr Reddy's Labs was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 2.8% to ₹1,149 after its net profit declined 69% to ₹4,435 crore in Q1 compared to ₹14,178 crore in the year-ago period.

The pharma company’s overall revenue from core operations dropped 5.5% to ₹8,070.5 crore in the first quarter results, compared to ₹8,545.2 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Nestle India, Adani Enterprises, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, HDFC Life, Axis Bank and NTPC also fell between 0.66% and 2.5%.

On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Shriram Finance, Grasim, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies, JSW Steel and SBI Life were among gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,740 shares were declining while 1,014 were advancing on the NSE.