Indian Stock Market Falls on Middle East Crisis, Rising Oil Prices, and US Bond Yields

23 Oct 2023 , 01:11 PM

The markets opened on a lower note and witnessed increased selling throughout the day, as investors sought safety amid a deepening crisis in the Middle East, surging crude oil prices, and rising bond yields in the US.

By 1 PM, the Sensex had declined by 231.77 points, or 0.35%, standing at 65,165.85, while the Nifty was down by 91.40 points, or 0.47%, at 19,451.30. Out of the shares traded, 626 advanced, 2636 declined, and 136 remained unchanged.

All 13 major sectors experienced losses, with Kotak Mahindra Bank shedding 2% after announcing international banker Ashok Vaswani as the Managing Director and CEO. Conversely, private lender ICICI Bank gained 1.29% after surpassing quarterly estimates and reporting a nearly 36% increase in net profit, providing support to the Nifty 50 as it holds the third-highest weightage in the benchmark index.

The midcap and smallcap indices were also under selling pressure, declining by over 1.5% each. The Nifty Bank was trading lower by 0.1%, primarily due to the negative performance of Kotak Mahindra Bank.