Indian equities opened lower on Thursday as persistent foreign fund outflows continued to weigh on risk sentiment, although easing crude oil prices on prospects of US-Iran peace talks limited the downside.
The Nifty 50 was down 0.34% at 22,543.70, while the BSE Sensex fell 0.40% to 72,192.89 as of 9:15 am IST. Both benchmarks have lost about 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively, this week and are headed for an eighth consecutive weekly decline, which would be their longest such losing streak in 25 years.
Indian markets will remain closed on Friday for a local holiday.
Foreign outflows weigh
Foreign investors sold Indian shares worth ₹10,148 crore ($1.06 billion) on Wednesday, according to provisional data. They have offloaded about $3.6 billion in the previous five sessions, taking their year-to-date selling to $27.8 billion.
The sustained selling by foreign investors has added to pressure on Indian equities amid heightened uncertainty over the Iran war, crude oil prices and global interest rates.
Oil prices, Iran war in focus
Brent crude futures slipped to around $98 a barrel after Tehran said it had received Washington’s response to its latest ceasefire proposal. Days earlier, US President Donald Trump had said he rejected the proposal.
Oil prices have swung sharply in recent months amid uncertainty over when the war with Iran will allow crude supplies to return to normal.
Iranian officials said on Wednesday they had received an official US response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war. They did not disclose the contents of the response or say whether it amounted to a rejection.
Trump had publicly rejected an earlier Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the US met certain conditions.
Asian markets
Asian shares mostly rose in early Thursday trading, supported by investor interest in technology-related stocks despite continued concerns over the Iran war.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4% in morning trading to 68,355.81, while South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.5% to 6,873.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4% to 24,613.27 and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,842.19.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200, however, fell 1.7% to 8,638.10.
In Tokyo, stocks expected to benefit from strong demand for computer chips and AI-related technology have risen in recent sessions, including Advantest, Tokyo Electron and SoftBank Group.
Wall Street
US stocks mostly fell on Wednesday despite data suggesting the US economy remains resilient. The S&P 500 declined 0.3% to 7,651.54, marking its third losing month in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443.87 points, or 0.9%, to 50,906.05, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2%, or 63.52 points, to 26,861.06.
US inflation was lower than economists had expected in August. Consumer prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier, below the 3.7% increase economists had forecast, although the reading remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
In energy trading, US crude fell 0.56% to $89.91 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 0.35% to $97.69.
US bond yields climb
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 5.29%, from 5.26% late Tuesday, returning to levels last seen more than two decades ago in 2002.
The 30-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.64% from 5.59%.
In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 158.17 Japanese yen from 157.33 yen. The euro was at $1.1328, compared with $1.1334 previously.