MUMBAI: Rising geopolitical tensions in the Persian Gulf region pushed up Brent prices above the $100-per-barrel mark for the first time since July on Wednesday. This, in turn, led to the weakening of the rupee, which fell below the 95/$ mark and settled at 95.1 at close. Dalal Street, too, felt the jitters courtesy of these developments, with investors pressing the sell button, resulting in sensex falling below the 75K mark after nearly three months.With foreign funds selling aggressively, the benchmark index closed 813 points lower at 74,764 points. HDFC Bank and Infosys contributed the most to the day’s losses. On NSE, Nifty lost 204 points (0.9%) to close at 23,432 points.In the last one month, sensex has lost nearly 3,800 points or 4.8%, while Nifty is down 1,152 points or 4.7%. The losses came on the back of muted foreign fund activity through this one-month period. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), however, have again turned aggressive sellers in Sept. After two months of net inflows, FPIs have net sold stocks worth around Rs 12,400 crore in India, so far this month, combined data from NSDL and BSE showed.A revival in Chinese demand for crude also helped the rally in oil prices, reports said. Bond yields in US, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury (govt) bonds crossed the 4.8%-per-annum mark again, led market players to believe there’s a high chance it may soon move closer to the 5% mark, adding to the worry of investors.Against this backdrop-rising oil prices which could stoke inflation and rising bond yields-US Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting next week, with its rate decision set for Sept 16, is turning out to be an extremely important one for the market. Any indication of a rate hike in US could have global implications, market players here said.According to Vinod Nair of Geojit Investments, markets are increasingly pricing in a prolonged West Asia conflict, with continued hostilities and retaliatory actions expected to keep crude oil prices elevated in the near term. “Persistent geopolitical uncertainty is making it difficult for major central banks to achieve a balance between growth and inflation,” he said.On the sectoral front, software services stocks led the slide. “The Nifty IT index declined around 3%, as rising US bond yields, concerns over US Federal Reserve’s rate outlook and structural worries around AI-driven disruption weighed on technology stocks,” said Ajit Mishra of Religare Broking. “Realty, financials and FMCG also edged lower, while select defence, metal and energy-related stocks showed relative resilience.“
