India Stocks: India's Sensex slumps to 32-month low on oil surge, foreign exodus

Tata Consultancy Services

08/10/2026 11:24

Updates for markets close
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
Oct 8 (Reuters) - India's benchmark Sensex slumped to its lowest in 32 months on Thursday as surging oil prices, rising global bond yields and a weaker rupee heightened inflation concerns, adding to pressure from the central bank's hawkish rate increase a day earlier.
The Nifty 50 .NSEI fell 1.64% to 22,231.8, and Sensex .BSESN shed 1.44% to 71,593.24. This was 50-stock index's lowest close in 18 months.
 The decline came as foreign investors stepped up selling, offloading a net 469.9 billion rupees ($4.86 billion) in nine days and taking year-to-date outflows to a record $30.4 billion.
 The benchmark 50-stock index has lost nearly 15% year to date, in contrast to MSCI's emerging markets index's .dMIEF00000PUS 23% jump fuelled by fund flows into AI-linked stocks.
The Nifty 50 and Sensex also slipped back into oversold territory after briefly recovering last week, with their relative strength indexes falling below 30, signalling heavy selling.
 All the 16 major sectors fell on Thursday. Small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 lost 2.3% and 2.5%, respectively.
 The three heaviest benchmark stocks, HDFC Bank HDBK.NS, ICICI Bank ICBK.NS and Reliance Industries RELI.NS fell 1.5%, 0.6% and 2.5%, respectively.
"Markets are currently under pressure from a web of interconnected factors, rising global bond yields on inflation concerns, a weakening rupee and sustained foreign investor outflows, all of which are, at their core, linked to elevated oil prices," said G Chokkalingam, founder and head of research at Equinomics Research.
Brent crude surged 4% to over $104 a barrel as Gulf shipping attacks and a US hurricane intensified supply concerns. O/R
"Equities face further heat as oil rises incrementally and monsoon deficits, low water storage compound price pressures in the economy," Chokkalingam said.
Reserve Bank of India raised its ​benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5% on Wednesday and signalled more increases as it aims to tackle the uptick in inflation.    
Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS fell 0.2% ahead of its September-quarter earnings due after market close.
Analysts expect TCS to post an 11.2% year-on-year rise in quarterly revenue and a 14.2% uptick in profit.
Paytm PAYT.NS, One Mobikwik ONEM.NS and Pine Labs PINL.NS fell 5.2%, 4.5% and 4.4% on reports that the planned October 15 rollout of merchant fees on certain digital-payment transactions could be delayed by a few months. 
 
     
     
     
($1 = 96.7775 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
 ((VivekKumar.M@thomsonreuters.com;))