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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

By Adhithya Aji

MUMBAI – Benchmark stock indices slumped on Thursday due to adverse global cues. Crude oil prices above $100 per barrel, high US bond yields, and a depreciating rupee pulled the market down for the fourth consecutive session, and the Nifty 50 ended lower for the eighth consecutive week. Analysts now expect foreign investors to sell more Indian shares as US bond yields rose to their highest levels since 2002.

The Nifty 50 closed 0.9% lower at 22421.95, down 198.50 points, and the BSE Sensex closed 0.8% lower at 71909.70, down 570.59 points. The Nifty 50 touched its lowest level since April, while the BSE Sensex recorded its lowest level since February 2024. At 1546 IST, the December futures of Brent crude were nearly 3% higher at $100.76 per barrel. The benchmark 10-year US yield hit its highest level since 2002 at 5.33%. This is likely to intensify foreign investment outflow from the Indian equity market, which is already less attractive among emerging markets, according to analysts. On Wednesday, investors sold Indian stocks worth INR 101.48 billion. They were net sellers for the fifth consecutive session.   

Automobile stocks accelerated the losses in the market Thursday. The Nifty Auto closed 3.5% lower and recorded its lowest level since April. Automobile stocks declined after these companies released their auto sales data for September. Shares of Bajaj Auto closed nearly 8% lower, the worst hit stock in the Nifty 50. The stock touched a one-month low of INR 9,900 Thursday. The Pulsar maker reported a 9% fall in its domestic sales. More than half the company's sales come from the domestic market.

Investors are worried about whether the company will be able to offload its old inventory, as it has a good number of new models in its launch pipeline, according to an analyst tracking the sector with a domestic brokerage. More clarity is needed on whether the company will be able to clear its old inventory to boost new model sales, the analyst added. 

Mahindra & Mahindra ended 3% lower. The company reported a 21% on-year fall in its September tractor sales. Other auto constituents in the Nifty 50, Maruti Suzuki India and Eicher Motors, closed nearly 5% and over 3% lower, respectively.

Metal companies Tata Steel and JSW Steel ended nearly 2% and over 3% LOWER, respectively. Shriram Finance, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Grasim Industries, Adani Enterprises, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid Corp. of India, and UltraTech Cement ended 2-4% lower. On the other hand, information technology major Infosys ended as the top gainer in the Nifty 50, up over 4%. Its peers Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra ended around 1% higher each. Index heavyweight banking stock HDFC Bank ended nearly 2% higher. HDFC Life Insurance Co., SBI Life Insurance Co., and Max Healthcare Institute ended 1-2% higher.   

Broader market indices ended in the red as well. Mid-cap and small-cap indices ended around 1% lower each. Barring the Nifty Bank and Nifty IT, all the other sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty IT ended over 2% higher and Nifty Private Bank was flat. Nifty Metal, Nifty Media, Nifty Consumer Durables, and Nifty Media ended around 2% lower each. "The market sell-off has been driven largely by external factors, with bond yields reaching multi-year highs and crude oil prices remaining elevated, raising concerns about the economic outlook for 2026–27," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, said in a note. 

Shares of PB Fintech ended nearly 8% lower to be the worst hit stock in both the Nifty 200 and Nifty 500 indices. The stock Thursday hit its over two-year low of INR 963.90. The stock was down for the sixth consecutive session and shed 48% during the period. In the Nifty 200, Mphasis, and Coforge ended over 4% higher each. On Thursday, the domestic currency fell sharply against the dollar, down 0.5% at 96.3150 a dollar. 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 13 rose, 37 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 6 rose, 24 fell 

* On the NSE, 1,023 stocks rose, 2,574 fell, and 110 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,367 stocks rose, 3,056 fell, and 299 were unchanged
* Nifty IT: up 2.2%; Nifty Metal: dn 2.4%; Nifty Auto: up 3.5%

BSE                                            NSE

Sensex: 71909.70, down 570.59 points or 0.8%   Nifty 50: 22421.95, down 198.50 points or 0.9%

End

US$1 = INR 96.32

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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