Sensex sheds 829 points as energy crisis intensifies

MUMBAI: Dalal Street investors wilted again on Thursday as the war in West Asia continued with crude oil touching the three-digit dollar mark and the world's energy agency warning that the worst oil crisis ever is almost upon us.

The day's session started on a weak note with the sensex down about 500 points. Thereafter, amid significant volatility, the index closed at 76,034 points, down 829 points on the day. In the last two sessions, the index has lost close to 2,200 points.

Thursday's slide came on the back of heavy selling by foreign funds with the net outflow at Rs 7,050 crore, BSE data showed. The session's strong selling also left investors poorer by Rs 1.8 lakh crore with BSE's current market cap at just a tad above the Rs 440 lakh crore.

According to Ajit Mishra, senior vice president-research, Religare Broking, in the absence of any sign of de-escalation of tension in West Asia, geopolitical issues continued to unsettle global markets and push crude oil prices higher.

"Oil prices have surged again after the recent dip and are hovering around the $97 mark, raising concerns over inflationary pressures, currency weakness and the potential impact on India's trade balance."

Among the 30 sensex stocks, 26 closed in the red. Among the laggards, ICICI Bank, L&T and M&M contributed the most to the day's slide. On the other hand, buying in NTPC and PowerGrid cushioned the sensex's fall, but only marginally.

In the broader market, there were 2,645 stocks that closed in the red while 1,598 closed higher.