Indian equity indices declined on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, with Nifty 50 falling 96.65 points or 0.41% to 23,682.50, extending Monday's decline below the crucial 23,800 level. BSE Sensex opened at 75,970.28 and was trading at 75,759.85, down 372.96 points or 0.49% as of 9:41 AM, down from Monday's close of 76,132.81. The market is now in its fifth consecutive week of a slow but steady decline, with Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, noting that elevated crude prices, selling in IT stocks, fears of a Fed rate hike this month and a booming IPO market which is sucking lots of money have contributed to this slow grind down in the market. The market's underperformance coincides with Brent crude hovering near $97 per barrel, close to a six-week high, while India's average crude import price, the Indian Basket, surged to $101 per barrel on Friday and is averaging $99 per barrel in September, up sharply from $83 per barrel in June and $90 per barrel in August.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been net sellers in every single-day of the September futures & options (F&O) series, with the latest data showing net selling of ₹14,477.39 crore in index futures across 11 trading sessions thus far. According to NSE derivatives data, FIIs have net sold index futures worth ₹14,477 crore in the September series, demonstrating sustained selling pressure. The exchange data reveals that FIIs were pre-dominantly net sellers in Nifty futures, net selling 63,047 contracts, taking their overall open interest to a two-month high at 2.38 lakh contracts. Dharmesh Bhatt, Head-Derivatives Research at Systematix Institutional Research, notes that the pace at which FIIs have added short bets in index futures accelerated in the last three trading sessions. FIIs' total exposure in index futures rose by 52.8% or 1.22 lakh contracts to 3.54 lakh contracts as of Wednesday, September 09, with Nifty futures accounting for 76.2% of the total open interest. 89 percent of FIIs' total open interest (3.20 lakh contracts) in index futures is on the short side, indicating heavy short positioning, though Monday's session saw a reversal as FIIs turned net buyers with an inflow of ₹280 crore, while Domestic Institutional Investors recorded net buying of ₹566 crore, for a combined institutional inflow of ₹846 crore, providing some market cushion despite the broader decline.
Analyst Dharmesh Shah from ICICI Securities indicates that Nifty is moving into oversold territory after four consecutive weeks of decline, with the crucial support zone lying in the 23,600-23,700 region which coincides with its recent low. Shah warns that a sustained break below 23,600 could intensify correction towards 23,500, followed by 23,300. On the upside, resistance is placed in the 24,150-24,200 zone as it represents the confluence of 50 and 100-day EMA levels. The daily RSI is hovering around 40 and remains below its 9-day average, while the daily ADX has moved above 20 and is rising, suggesting that the prevailing trend is gaining strength. Technically, the Nifty is trading below its key moving averages with RSI at 34.72, reflecting fragile near-term momentum, according to Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research, Kotak Securities. For day traders, 23,800/76,200 will act as a key resistance zone. Below this, a correction wave is likely to continue, with the market potentially sliding towards 23,670–23,600 on the downside.
Monday's session saw broad-based selling across IT, metals, PSU banks and media sectors, with the media index falling 3% and IT index declining 2.28%. However, pharma and healthcare stocks saw selective intraday buying and were the lone sectors to buck the broader trend. On Tuesday's leaderboard, BEL led gainers, opening at ₹408.00 and trading at ₹411.85, up 1.94%, followed by HDFC Life gaining 1.49% to ₹541.15 and Hindalco rising 1.23% to ₹1,018.40. On the declining side, Trent was the top decliner, falling 1.33% to ₹2,777.00, while Shriram Finance dropped 1.18% to ₹1,024.80 and Mahindra & Mahindra slipped 1.08% to ₹3,125.90. Defence stocks are expected to attract attention after the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded Acceptance of Necessity for acquisition proposals estimated at ₹1.10 lakh crore, with approximately 98% of planned procurements targeted at Indian industry.
Bank Nifty closed Monday at 57,088.30, down 281.35 points, with immediate support at 56,500–56,700 and resistance at 57,400–57,500. The daily RSI has been moving sideways for 42 trading sessions, while both Stochastic Oscillator and MACD continue to fluctuate within narrow ranges without providing a strong directional signal. A breakout on either side of the 57,000-58,250 range will determine the next leg of move, with a break below 57,000 potentially dragging the index down to 56,500 and 56,000, while a break above 58,250 could see 59,000 and 60,000 on the upside. GIFT Nifty was indicating a largely flat-to-weak opening around 23,781–23,797. Despite Monday's market decline, Vijayakumar notes that this trend is opening up opportunities for investors in large-caps which continue to remain weak despite improving fundamentals, suggesting that investors can consider changing portfolio weightage towards large-caps where the risk-reward is favourable.
