Indian shares gave up an early rally and were heading for a fourth straight losing session by Friday afternoon. Brent stayed above $113 a barrel, and small and mid-sized companies were hit hardest.
The Sensex was down 738.46 points, or 1.01%, at 72,510.93 at 1 PM, and the Nifty 50 had fallen 285.20 points, or 1.26%, to 22,402.45 during mid-afternoon today. Both indices were near their lows of the day.
Losses were much heavier outside the large companies. The Nifty Midcap index was down about 2.5% and the Nifty Smallcap about 3.5%, well beyond the benchmark falls. That points to investors selling broadly, not just trimming a few stocks.
The morning started very differently. The Sensex opened about 500 points higher at 73,752, helped by bargain-hunting in IT stocks and gains in Reliance Industries after three days of losses. The rally lasted less than an hour. By 10 AM the Sensex was barely positive, and by noon it was down more than 650 points.
Oil was the cause again. Brent crude held around $113–114 a barrel on Friday, extending the jump that followed Wednesday’s drone strike on a Saudi Aramco oil field. Brent is up about 7% in a month and more than 70% from a year ago.
For Indian investors, every rise in crude raises the same worries: higher inflation, a weaker rupee, a larger import bill and the likelihood of further RBI rate hikes. Retail inflation is already near 6%, and wholesale inflation is at its highest in the current series. An early bounce on bargain-hunting could not withstand those concerns once oil stayed high.
Metals and realty lead the fall
Metal and realty stocks led the losses. Both are sensitive to interest rates and energy costs: realty companies depend on borrowed money and home loans, and metal producers use large amounts of energy. If oil keeps rates higher for longer, both are hit.
IT was the one sector rising. Indian IT companies earn most of their revenue in dollars, so a weaker rupee lifts their earnings when converted, and investors often buy them when domestic risks increase. The gain came despite a sharp selloff in US tech stocks overnight, which shows investors are prepared to separate Indian IT services from the US chip and AI stocks that fell.
Steel Strips Wheels was a standout, up about 15% after its September-quarter profit growth.
Foreign selling continues
Institutional flows show who has been selling. Foreign investors sold Indian shares worth ₹3,458.70 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutions bought ₹2,891.32 crore, according to exchange data. That pattern has held all year: foreign funds have taken more than ₹3 lakh crore out of Indian equities in 2026, and domestic mutual funds and insurers have absorbed most of it. On days like Friday, domestic buying was not enough to offset selling across the broader market.
A mixed debut for four new listings
The weak market weighed on Friday’s four IPO debuts. Tonbo Imaging, the defence imaging company whose issue was subscribed nearly 97 times, listed at a premium of about 66%, a gain of about ₹9,700 on each lot. Sahajanand Medical Technologies and Zetwerk also listed above their issue prices, with investors gaining about ₹1,160 and ₹820 per lot respectively. Bonfiglioli Transmissions, despite being subscribed more than 31 times, listed below grey-market expectations.
Jio Platforms’ ₹30,213 crore IPO, the largest in Indian history, closes for bidding today. It was subscribed 5.57 times by the end of Thursday, and the final day’s retail demand is being closely watched given the falling market.
Whether the selling deepens into the close depends mainly on oil and on how Europe opens. European markets fell on Thursday on French debt worries and higher oil prices. If Brent rises further, the Nifty could close below 22,400. If crude eases, the broader market may recover some of its losses before the close.
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