The Indian stock market suffered heavy losses in Thursday’s trade, September 8, in a broad-based sell-off, dragging the key indices down nearly 2% as investor sentiment was hit by a sharp jump in crude oil prices and surging global bond yields.
Investors now appear increasingly concerned about the outlook for inflation and economic growth, given elevated crude oil prices and the RBI’s recent 25-basis-point rate hike, which has raised fears that the central bank could maintain a tighter monetary policy stance or resort to further rate hikes if inflationary pressures persist.
Domestic equities opened the session lower, and selling accelerated in the first half of the session, which deepened through the close, wiping out over ₹10 lakh crore of investors’ wealth.
The Nifty slumped 1.71% in trade to settle at 22,216, its lowest level in 2026, while the Sensex concluded the session at 71,461, down 1.62% from the previous close. The broader markets were hit hard, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices crashing 2.71% and 2.53%, respectively.
All sectoral indices slumped in trade, with metals leading the losses, followed by realty, media, oil and gas, auto, pharma, cement and FMCG. The price of Brent crude oil jumped nearly 4% on Thursday as rising tensions in the Middle East added to uncertainties over supplies.