India Stocks Review
End lower after 3 days as crude oil rises to $100/bbl
This story was originally published at 16:02 IST on 22 April 2026
Register to read our real-time news.Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2026
By Arundathi A R
MUMBAI – Bears overruled the bulls in the domestic equity market Wednesday and the headline indices closed almost 1% lower. The sharp fall in most information technology stocks resulted in the indices snapping a three-day rally. Heightened concern about the US-Iran peace talks and a rise in Brent crude oil prices back to the $100 per-barrel level weighed on sentiment despite President Donald Trump's announcement extending the two-week ceasefire in West Asia indefinitely.
The Nifty 50 closed 0.8% lower at 24378.10 points. The BSE Sensex ended 1% lower at 78516.49 points. At 1536 IST, the June futures contract of Brent Crude was trading nearly 2% higher at $100.09 a barrel. The nervousness among investors rose considerably and the India Volatility Index ended nearly 4% higher at 18.3000.
The announcement of the ceasefire extension came after reports that US Vice-President J.D. Vance's visit to Pakistan for the second round of peace talks with Iranian officials had been put on hold. The extension of the ceasefire with Iran was announced purportedly to allow Tehran more time to come up with a proposal to end the war. "I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other," Trump posted on social media.
The broader market indices outperformed the benchmarks, with all the Nifty smallcap indices settling over 1% higher. Barring the Nifty Midcap 50, all midcap indices closed 0.2% higher. The sectoral indices also fared well, with only six ending in the red. The Nifty IT was the biggest laggard among them, down almost 4%. All its constituents with the exception of Oracle Financial Services Software ended lower.
HCL Technologies was the worst performing Nifty 50 stock through the session and ended nearly 11% down. For the March quarter, the IT major had Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of INR 44.88 billion, lower than analysts' projection of INR 47.23 billion. The profit grew 10% on quarter and 4.2% on year. The company's consolidated revenue for the quarter was INR 339.81 billion, below the Street's expectation of INR 344.24 billion. The revenue was almost flat on quarter but grew 12.4% on year. More
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