Sensex, Nifty Today; Oct 4: Sensex Falls From Day’s High, Nifty Below 25,130

Sensex today witnessed decline of 491 points or 0.60% to 82,005 and Nifty 50 slipped 140 points or 0.56% to 25,109 in afternoon trade at 1:05 pm on October 4 amid weak global cues. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Ltd shares plunged 0.84% to 2791.60 on BSE. Banking and financial stocks too traded in red on Friday. Meanwhile, Realty and FMCG sectors emerged as the worst sectoral performers in trade today.

According to Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, "FIIs are moving money from expensive India to cheap Hong Kong on expectations that the monetary and fiscal stimulus being implemented by the Chinese authorities will stimulate the Chinese economy and improve earnings of Chinese companies."

Earlier at 12:30 pm, Sensex recorded surge of 759 or 0.93% to 83,266 and Nifty surged 205 points to 25,456. Nifty Bank zoomed 403 points to 52,248 and Nifty Midcap soared 216 points to 59,241 on Friday. Oil India Ltd shares rallied nearly 4% in trade today. Current market price of Oil India Ltd shares on BSE is Rs 562.40 per share.

The BSE FMCG index is 1.5% down with shares of leading companies like Nestle, Avadh Sugar, HUL, and Kaveri Seeds declining by over 2% in trade on October 4, 2024.

The ongoing Middle-East tension left investors worries as the region gears up for more escalation. Earlier on October 3, Israeli military had issued warning to people asking them to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon that are outside a U.N.-declared buffer zone, indicating that it may widen a ground operation launched earlier this week against Hezbollah militant group. Israeli forces reported they had hit nearly 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, that included weapons-storage facilities and observation posts.

Earlier, GIFT Nifty futures also pointed to a weak beginning for the bourses as it traded 66 points lower at 25,410 levels. US stocks too traded in red on Thursday ahead of the eagerly awaited monthly payrolls report. The Dow Jones fell 0.44% and the S&P 500 declined 0.17%. Nasdaq too witnessed marginal fall of 0.04%.

Also, the Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on October 4, highlighting declines on Wall Street.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell more than 1%. Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.09%, and the broad-based Topix surged marginally. South Korea's Kospi jumped 0.49%.

Rally in oil prices added to the ambiguity, with Brent crude jumping over 5% on Thursday, marking its biggest surge in a year. It marked oil's 3rd consecutive session of rally as worries prevailed that Israel might target Iran's oil industry in retaliation for Tehran's latest ballistic missile attack.

Brent crude futures jumped 9 cents, or 0.12%, to $77.71 a barrel as of 0010 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures soared 8 cents, or 0.11%, to $73.79 a barrel.

According to Reuters, "President Joe Biden said on Thursday the US was discussing strikes on Iran's oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran's missile attack on Israel. The comments contributed to a 5% rally in oil prices."

The supply fears have been tempered by OPEC's spare production capacity and the fact that global crude supplies have yet to be disrupted by the Middle East unrest, added the Reuters report.