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Informist, Monday, Jun. 23, 2025

By Simran Rede

MUMBAI – The headline equity indices closed off the day's lows Monday as most stocks reversed their initial losses. Investors are likely to have bought equities following a sharp fall in the early hour of trade. The market had opened lower and declined over 1% on account of the worsening conflict in West Asia and rising crude oil prices.

Early Sunday, the US entered the conflict between Israel and Iran and bombed three key Iranian nuclear facilities. In response, Iran has threatened US bases in West Asia and also pledged to defend itself. Following this attack on Iran by the US, Iran's parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to media reports.

Consequently, crude oil prices rose sharply. The August futures contract of Brent Crude had opened over $80 per barrel and rose to $81.39 per barrel, a level last seen in January. However, at 1533 IST, the contract was down at $77.38 per barrel, up 0.5% from the previous close.

The Nifty 50 ended at 24971.90 points, down 140.50 points or 0.6%. The BSE Sensex closed at 81896.79 points, down 511.38 points or 0.6%. Despite the benchmark indices closing 0.6% lower, only a little over 50% of the stocks traded on the NSE closed in the red, which suggests that the market breadth was mixed.

The uncertainty in the market rose sharply after five sessions. The India VIX, the fear gauge of Dalal Street, closed 2.7% higher at 14.0475.

Broader market indices ended in positive territory with the mid- and small-cap indices ending 0.4-0.8% higher. The underlying sentiment of the market was indecisive, which was evident from the fact that 38 stocks fell to their 52-week lows during the session, while 41 stocks rose to their 52-week highs.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Media and Nifty India Defence were the top gainers throughout the session and closed over 4% and 2% higher, respectively. On the other hand, the Nifty IT closed 1.5% lower and was the worst hit among the sectoral indices.

Sentiment around information technology stocks was dented after the US entered the conflict between Israel and Iran, stoking fears of a rise in inflation. Additionally, Nuvama Institutional Equities said the growth in earnings of US-based IT major Accenture for the May quarter was solid despite elevated macroeconomic uncertainty. The brokerage expects this to be slightly positive for Indian IT firms over the medium-to-long term, as it sees a recovery in the macroeconomic environment to accelerate enterprise technology spending.

Most automobile stocks fell Monday and the Nifty Auto closed nearly 1% lower. Nomura Global Markets Research expects the government's possible mandate on an anti-lock braking system for all two-wheelers sold from January 2026 to hit demand for the vehicles by 2-4%. The change is also likely to push up the cost of manufacturing two-wheelers by INR 3,000, which may be passed on to consumers with a pricing impact of 3-5%, the brokerage said. 

Stocks of some shipping companies rose after the conflict in West Asia escalated over the weekend. Sea freight rates are likely to rise due to the prolonged and growing geopolitical uncertainty. Shares of Shipping Corp. of India closed nearly 4% higher.

Trent rose 4% and was the top gainer in the Nifty 50. The rise followed the stock's inclusion in the benchmark BSE Sensex index effective Monday. Ola Electric Mobility fell 6% and was the worst hit in the Nifty 200 after large block deals of 2.84 million shares were executed in early trade on the NSE at a 4% discount to Friday's closing price.

LT Foods fell over 6% after the US Department of Commerce imposed the highest possible 340% countervailing duty on its wholly-owned subsidiary Ecopure's exports of organic soybean meal to the US. The stock was among the worst hit in the Nifty 500. Zee Entertainment Enterprises closed over 12% higher and was the top gainer in the Nifty 500 after the company said it aims for its digital business, Z5, to break even in the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar).

Chennai Petroleum Corp. and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals were also among the top gainers in the Nifty 500 and closed 11% and 8% higher, respectively. Some analysts believe this might be because oil prices would have been at similar levels when these companies had bought inventory around the beginning of December or January, which limits the negative impact of the surge in crude prices on these companies.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 15 rose and 35 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 7 rose and 23 fell

* On the NSE, 1,364 stocks rose, 1,545 fell, and 86 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,854 stocks rose, 2,204 fell, and 182 were unchanged

* Nifty Media: up 4.4%; Nifty India Defence: up 2.1%; Nifty IT: down 1.5%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 81896.79, down 511.38 points or 0.6%       Nifty 50: 24971.90, down 140.50 points or 0.6%

End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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