Sensex, Nifty Slip 1%, Rupee Below 94 As Crude Breach $100 Mark Amid Rising Tensions In Hormuz

Domestic equity markets continued to trade lower on Thursday after uncertainty rose, as diplomatic efforts failed to bring peace between the United States and Iran in the Gulf region.

The Strait of Hormuz remained choked by the United States Navy, driving oil prices above the $100 per barrel mark, while Iran captured two foreign vessels and opened fire on a third ship for violating maritime regulations.

Tracking its Asian peers, Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened 530 points and 170 points lower and declined further during early trade.

As of 11 AM, Sensex was trading 0.9 percent lower at around 77,870 points, while Nifty was down 0.7 percent at around 24,220 points. Both the indices went about 1 percent down during the early trade to later pare some losses.

Among broader market indices, the Nifty Midcap 50 was trading 0.5 percent lower, while the Smallcap 50 was down around 0.25 percent.

Nifty Auto was the worst-performing among sectoral indices with a loss of over 1.86 percent, followed by consumer durables (down 1.76 percent) and the realty index (down 1.3 percent). Nifty Pharma was the top-performing sectoral index, trading 2.2 percent higher.

Stocks like Trent, Bajaj Finance, and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the top losers.

The Indian currency also came under pressure on Thursday, crossing the 94 per dollar mark in early trade. The rupee slid 34 paise to 94.12 against the US dollar. The domestic currency has already lost nearly 1 percent this week.

In the bullion market, spot gold and silver also traded lower. Gold was down by 0.2 percent, or Rs 285, to trade at around Rs 1,51,484 per 10 gram, while silver declined 0.9 percent to Rs 2,48,376 per kilogram.

The sell-off across equities and commodities is a result of negative market sentiment as tensions between the US and Iran appear to be escalating again.

In more than two weeks, crude oil has again breached the $100 mark to trade at around $102 per barrel amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.