Nifty Plunges Over 300 Points on Israel-Iran Tensions 

Indian bourses extended their bearish streak with Nifty logging another sharp decline, gapping down over 500 points before settling 313 points lower with a 1.24% loss at 25,865. The early pullback attempt within the first half-hour faltered quickly, triggering a 387-point slide from the morning high of 24,989 to an intraday low of 24,603. Notably, the bulls managed to defend the critical Budget-day floor of 24,571, providing a slim technical silver lining amidst the carnage.

In a sea of red, BEL, Hindalco, and Sun Pharma defied the rout as Nifty’s top gainers, while IndiGo, Larsen & Toubro, and Adani Ports spearheaded losses.

While Metal and Pharma managed to end with marginal gains, the Auto, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas sectors posted the steepest declines as soaring crude price weighed on sentiment.

The pain was felt across the board. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 underperformed the benchmark, shedding 1.58% and 1.75%, respectively. Market breadth was dismal, with the advance-decline ratio collapsing to 0.23, weakest reading since January 20, 2026.

Triggered by spiking oil prices in the wake of the Iran crisis, the Indian rupee weakened by 50 paise to close at one month low at 91.47, its sharpest one-day drop since late January. The currency remains under pressure as investors move toward safe-haven assets, foreign capital outflow from the equities, and fears grow that expensive imports will hurt the trade balance.

Nifty’s plunge below all major moving averages has firmly flipped the positional trend bearish, erasing recent consolidation phase. A breach under 24,571 could accelerate toward the next major support at 24,340 while the 25,000–25,200 zone is likely to act as a strong resistance.