Sensex down 2.2k pts in four sessions as Gulf stays on boil

MUMBAI: As the West Asia peace talks showed no meaningful progress, and fresh reports of flare-ups between the US and Iran emerged, crude oil prices jumped and weighed on investor sentiment on Dalal Street on Monday. With foreign funds continuing to sell Indian stocks, sensex slid 1,100 points from the day's high to close at 74,267 points, down 508 points on the day.

Foreign funds net sold stocks worth a little over Rs 3,900 crore, which in turn took the total net outflow this year to over the Rs 2.5-lakh-crore mark, data from BSE and NSDL showed. In comparison, during the whole of 2025, the total net selling of stocks by foreign funds was nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore.

Monday's was the fourth consecutive session of losses for the sensex during which the index has lost 2,222 points or almost 3%.

According to Siddhartha Khemka, of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the domestic market is expected to remain range-bound with a marginal negative bias in the near term amid persistent foreign portfolio investor (FPI) selling and ongoing uncertainty around global macro developments. With the (Jan-March quarterly) earnings season largely over and India Inc reporting stronger earnings growth, focus is likely to remain on stock-specific opportunities in the midcap space, Khemka said.

Going ahead, the key monitorables for investors will be the RBI's upcoming policy meeting that will conclude on June 5, while textile stocks may remain in focus following govt's cotton import duty waiver, Khemka said.

The day's slide left investors poorer by about Rs 4.3 lakh crore with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 460.7 lakh crore, data showed.

On the positive side, rupee showed signs of stabilisation with the Indian currency closing 1 paise stronger to the dollar at 94.99. However, in late trades in the non-deliverable market it had weakened to trade at 95.17/$.

Also in late trades, with reports of flare-ups in the Persian Gulf, Brent crude spiked over 5% to trade near the $96/barrel level. In opening US trades, while Dow Jones index was down about 100 points (0.2%), Nasdaq Composite and S& were flat.

Meanwhile, the stock price of Zee Entertainment Enterprises jumped 7% in intra-day trades on Monday after it announced that it will telecast the upcoming football world cup in India.

Ready to Make a Smarter Property Decision? Build Your Legacy with TOI Homes.