The SENSEX dropped as much as 1,279 points from its day‑high, falling to 72,887, while the NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 22,407 after earlier reaching 22,787. The decline erased early gains on Friday, October 23, as investor sentiment turned negative in response to a surge in global crude prices. At 10:44 a.m., the SENSEX was down 362 points, and the NIFTY50 had slipped 172 points to 22,515. The market reaction was driven by losses in heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Titan, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NTPC and Adani Ports.

Investor sentiment turned negative as surging crude prices stoked fears that spiralling inflation would adversely affect margins of Indian companies going ahead. Brent crude futures surged as much as 1.35% to a fresh five‑month high of $114.7 per barrel, driven by concerns of further energy supply disruption after Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter. Saudi Aramco ordered the evacuation of its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf near Bahrain as fighting intensified between the exporter and Yemen‑based Houthis.

Clashes between the Houthis and a Saudi‑led coalition that backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government have raged since the Iran‑aligned Houthis pushed towards Bab el‑Mandeb, a shipping chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea. Asian markets were trading lower, tracking the crude surge and a sell‑off in technology shares. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2%, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 2.13%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.45% and South Korea’s KOSPI fell 2.5%.

Overnight, U.S. shares ended lower on Thursday, dragged down by a sell‑off in artificial‑intelligence stocks while oil surged to its highest level since May. AI‑related stocks have been swinging on worries that their boom may be under threat because of how expensive it’s become to borrow money to build data centres and buy more AI chips. Concerns also remain that their prices shot too high following a years‑long frenzy, even though companies in the industry continue to report growth.

All major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of IT shares, were trading lower, led by the NIFTY Metal index’s over 1% fall. NIFTY Consumer Durables, PSU Bank, Media, Auto, Bank and Financial Services indices also declined between 0.2% and 1%. On the other hand, IT shares were witnessing buying interest as anti‑AI trade played out following a sharp sell‑off in AI‑related shares overnight. The NIFTY IT index jumped over 2%.

Broader markets were witnessing intense selling pressure as the NIFTY Midcap 100 index dropped 0.83% and the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index plunged 1.25%. Among the individual shares, Swiggy dropped 15% to an intraday low of ₹190 after its net loss narrowed to ₹992 crore at the end of the September quarter from ₹1,092 crore a year earlier, although sequentially the company’s loss expanded from ₹791 crore in the first quarter of FY27. Hindalco was the top loser in the NIFTY50, falling 1.94% to ₹868. Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, Adani Enterprises, Titan, Tata Motors PV, HDFC Life, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India, Power Grid and Jio Financial Services also fell between 1% and 1.8%. On the flip side, TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and Tata Consumer Products were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index. The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,446 shares were falling while 609 were advancing on the NSE.