SENSEX, NIFTY50 fall for second straight session as surging crude dents sentiment

The Indian equity benchmarks erased morning gains to close lower for a second straight session on Wednesday, October 21, as investor sentiment was dented by surging crude prices in global markets.

The SENSEX fell as much as 1,453 points from the day's highest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 22,650 after hitting a high of 23,120 earlier in the session dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Eternal, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India.

The SENSEX dropped 143 points to close at 73,710 and NIFTY50 index declined 78 points to settle at 22,811.

Investor sentiment took a knock after Brent crude futures for delivery in December surged as much as 2.32% to hit nearly five-month high of $111 per barrel as attacks on Gulf shipping and no signs of diplomatic progress to end the Iran war fuelled supply disruption fears, while falling US crude and product inventories also lent support to the market.

Back home, all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange, barring the measure of IT shares, ended lower led by the NIFTY Consumer Durables index's 1.9% fall. NIFTY Metal, Bank, Financial Services, Auto, FMCG, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Realty indices also fell between 0.5% and 1.7%.

Broader markets underperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index dropped 1.6% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index tumbled 2.4%.

Among the individual shares, L&T Technology Services jumped 10% to close at ₹3,982 after it reported a net profit of ₹548 crore in the second quarter of current financial year, marking an increase of 66% from ₹329 crore in the same period last year. Its revenue from operations jumped 12% to ₹3,040 crore at the end of September quarter from ₹2,713 crore a year earlier. On a sequential basis, its revenue rose 3.4%.

In dollar terms, L&T Technology Services' revenue rose 4.8% to $317 million and operationally company reported stable earnings as its EBIT margin improved by 60 basis points to 16.3%.

Transrail Lightning shares rallied as much as 9.74% after the company bagged fresh orders worth ₹927 crore mainly in its Domestic Power T&D business, according to a regulatory filing dated October 20.

The order wins mainly include EPC projects in the domestic market for 765-kilovolt (kV) and 400kV transmission lines. It also comprises conductor supply orders to the United States of America (USA).

Bajaj Finance was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock dropped 3.27% to close at ₹926 as analysts made note of the margin pressure for the reporting quarter, with the margins facing the likelihood of further compression in the upcoming quarters.

It saw a 29% year-on-year (YoY) surge in its consolidated net profit to ₹6,367 crore in the July-September quarter of the 2026-27 financial year (Q2 FY27). It had clocked a net profit of ₹4,948 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, according to a regulatory filing.

The NBFC posted a 24% YoY growth in its net interest income (NII) to ₹13,335 crore during the quarter under review, as against ₹10,785 crore in the second quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year (Q2 FY26).

BSE, Eternal, Eicher Motors, Trent, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Enterprises, Shriram Finance, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Bharat Electronics and Nestle India also fell between 1.5% and 2.6%.

On the flip side, Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Ultratech Cement, Bharti Airtel, SBI Life, Power Grid and Reliance Industries were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,988 shares ended lower while 608 closed higher on the NSE.