Stock Markets Tumble: West Asia Turmoil & Oil Prices

Mumbai, Mar 13 (PTI) Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended sharply lower on Friday, propelled by heightening conflict in West Asia and surging oil prices.

Besides, heavy selling in global markets, persistent foreign fund outflows and weakness in the rupee also dented investors' sentiment.

Declining for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 1,579.82 points, or 2 per cent, to 74,454.60 during intra-day trade. The benchmark finally settled at 74,563.92, down 1,470.50 points, or 1.93 per cent.

The 50-share NSE Nifty tanked 488.05 points, or 2.06 per cent, to end at 23,151.10.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, SBI, Bharat Electronics, Maruti, and UltraTech Cement were among the prominent laggards.

Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.


Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.25 per cent to USD 100.7 per barrel.

In Asian markets, South Korea's benchmark Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended lower.

Markets in Europe were quoting in negative territory.

The US market ended sharply lower on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite tanked 1.78 per cent, Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.56 per cent, and S&P 500 dived 1.52 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 7,049.87 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) however, bought stocks worth Rs 7,449.77 crore.

On Thursday, the Sensex tanked 829.29 points, or 1.08 per cent, to settle at 76,034.42. Similarly, the Nifty fell by 227.70 points, or 0.95 per cent, to close at 23,639.15.