Indian equity benchmarks ended their three-day winning streak with a sharp intraday decline, as the SENSEX fell as much as 615 points and the NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,024. The decline was primarily driven by losses in major stocks including HDFC Bank, SBI, L&T, M&M, HCL Tech, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. According to Upstox Securities, the selloff was triggered by escalating geopolitical tensions and crude oil price volatility, highlighting the continued sensitivity of Indian markets to global developments.
Despite Friday's sharp decline, Indian equity benchmarks had ended their longest weekly winning streak of the year with marginal losses. According to latest reports, the Sensex closed at 77,569.39, down 0.25% for the week, while the Nifty ended at 24,206.90, declining 0.26%. For the complete week, both indices declined by 0.3%, marking the end of their four-week winning streak - their longest continuous run of weekly gains this year. As per Geojit Investments, the week was characterized by early optimism giving way to sharp risk aversion mid-week as escalating tensions in West Asia sent crude prices higher. However, the selloff proved short-lived as investor sentiment improved following encouraging Q1 business updates from banking and IT sectors.
Friday's gains were primarily driven by Reliance Industries, which rose 2.3% and emerged as both the best performer and biggest contributor to the index's advance. As reported by Business Standard, ICICI Bank gained 1.4% and HDFC Bank rose 0.8%. The Nifty IT index surged 1.96% following Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) better-than-expected Q1FY27 results, with the company reporting a net profit of ₹13,349 crore, up 4.6% from ₹12,760 crore in the year-ago period. According to Geojit Investments, in what had been expected to be a slow-growth quarter, India's largest IT services company beat analysts' growth estimates. The gains in IT stocks further boosted sentiment and helped drive the broad-based recovery towards the end of the volatile week.
The week was characterized by significant volatility, with the indices rising to a 10-week high on Monday before recording their sharpest single-day fall in more than three months mid-week. According to Business Standard, the decline was triggered by escalation in US-Iran tensions and a spike in crude oil prices. On Wednesday, July 8, benchmark indices plunged over 2% after US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was "over." Speaking at a NATO summit in Istanbul, he accused Tehran of violating the truce by targeting commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and signalled a tougher stance, dampening investor sentiment. Furthermore, investors' sentiment was dampened as crude oil prices in the global market surged over 5% during the week and closed near $77 per barrel (bbl). However, Friday's gains helped trim the weekly losses, with total market capitalisation rising by ₹6 trillion to ₹482 trillion on Friday.
Market sentiment improved following encouraging Q1 business updates from banking and IT sectors, providing a constructive backdrop for the upcoming earnings season. As reported by Business Standard, market breadth was strong with 2,809 stocks advancing and 1,462 declining. Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers worth ₹2,604 crore, while domestic institutional investors were net buyers worth ₹2,020 crore. According to Geojit Investments, this helped markets regain their footing, driving a broad-based recovery towards the end of the volatile week. The positive investor response to corporate earnings updates from major sectors provided momentum for the final session, with fresh foreign fund inflows and buying in heavyweight stocks further lifting market sentiment.
Despite a strong rally in the last two trading sessions, the Indian stock market ended the week of July 10 on a negative note, as investor sentiment remained cautious amid persistent geopolitical concerns. However, broader markets fared better than the benchmark indices, with the NIFTY Midcap 100 and NIFTY Smallcap 100 rising 1.4% and 1.3% respectively. On Friday, the NIFTY Midcap 100 surged up to 1.46% to hit a record high of 63,076.50, while the NIFTY Smallcap 100 advanced as much as 1.7% to a fresh 52-week high of 19,444.35. On the sectoral front, realty stocks led the gains during the week, with the NIFTY Realty index surging 5.4%, followed by the NIFTY Consumer Durables index, which rose 3.7%, and the NIFTY IT index, up 2.1%. The NIFTY Metal and NIFTY PSU Bank indices also ended in positive territory, advancing 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. However, media stocks were among the top laggards, with the NIFTY Media index declining 1.9% during the week.
