Mumbai: The escalating tension in the Middle East and a sharp rise in the global crude oil prices led to heavy selling in emerging market equities on Thursday with the Indian markets registering their worst fall since January 6, 2015 when the index closed down 3.07 per cent or 854.86 points lower at 26,987.46. The Sensex and Nifty plunged over two per cent as risk wary foreign portfolio investors (FPI) trimmed their exposure to domestic equities.
According to experts, overseas investors also turned sellers in the futures and options market by unwinding their long positions in Nifty futures contracts. Thursday was the last day of settlement in the F&O sector. Continuing with its fall for the seventh straight session, the Sensex tanked as much as 726.96 points in the intra-day trade before closing the day at 27,457.59, losing 654.25 points or 2.33 per cent. The Nifty slumped 188.65 points or 2.21 per cent to end the day at 8,342.15.
“The escalating tension in the Middle East has raised concerns about further flare up in the prices of crude oil. Moreover, it was the expiry of March derivative series. Overseas investors were seen squaring off their long positions in the market,” observed Ambareesh Baliga, a market expert.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.39 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite fell 0.99 per cent and 0.68 per cent respectively.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, the realty index was the biggest loser while FMCG and Power index dipped 2.09 per cent each.
