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Markets witness bloodbath amid escalating Middle East tensions, oil prices
Mar-19-2026

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-down opening on Thursday tracking weakness in global peers and a sharp rise in crude oil prices, Brent crude above $110 per barrel, after Iran struck Middle East energy facilities in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field. Sensex and Nifty witnessed bloodbath in early deals as foreign investors continued to pull money out of Indian equities. On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,714.35 crore. This marked the 14th straight session of selling by foreign investors. Cautiousness came as a report by ICRA and ASSOCHAM said fresh slippages in the banking sector are expected to rise in the near term due to emerging stress in the retail and MSME segments, even as overall asset quality remains strong.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged but maintained a cautious stance, pointing to ongoing inflation concerns and risks from rising energy prices. Back home, in stock specific development, HDFC Bank was leading the losers with cut of around 5% after its chairman resigned with immediate effect.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74955.41, down by 1748.72 points or 2.28% after trading in a range of 74685.52 and 75354.18. All the 30 stocks were declining on the index.

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 2.88%, Realty down by 2.67%, Consumer Durables down by 2.38%, Auto down by 2.31%, Consumer Discretionary down by 2.24%, while there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral front.

The top losers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank down by 5.08%, Eternal down by 3.52%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.26%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.17% and Axis Bank down by 3.02%.

Meanwhile, Income Tax Department in its latest data has showed that the net direct tax collection grew 7.1 per cent to about Rs 22.8 lakh crore till March 17 this fiscal (FY26) due to slower refunds and higher corporate tax mop-up. Besides, net corporate tax collection grew by about 13 per cent to Rs 9.68 lakh crore, and taxes from non-corporates, including individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), increased 3 per cent to around Rs 11.32 lakh crore. Securities Transaction Tax collection stood at Rs 55,717 crore between April 1, 2025, and March 17, 2026, against Rs 53,095 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, registering a rise of 5 per cent. Tax refund issuance declined by 6 per cent to Rs 4.34 lakh crore during the period.

The department said the advance tax collection rose by 6.4 per cent to Rs 11.13 lakh crore in four tranches. The last tranche of advance tax collection closed on March 15. There was a degrowth of 1.78 per cent in advance tax collection in the non-corporate segment to Rs 2.83 lakh crore till March 17, 2026, compared to Rs 2.88 lakh crore during the same period of the previous financial year.

As regards corporate tax, it grew by 9.5 per cent to Rs 8.29 lakh crore from Rs 7.57 lakh crore as of March 17, 2025. Gross direct tax collection increased 4.8 per cent to Rs 27.15 lakh crore till March 17 of this fiscal. This includes gross corporate tax and non-corporate tax mop-up of Rs 13.47 lakh crore and Rs 13.11 lakh crore, respectively. In the Revised Estimates (RE) for the current fiscal (2025-26), the government has projected its direct tax collection at Rs 24.84 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23271.00, down by 506.80 points or 2.13% after trading in a range of 23180.95 and 23378.70. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The only gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 0.32% and Coal India up by 0.11%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 4.79%, Shriram Finance down by 3.48%, Eternal down by 3.46%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.26% and Bajaj Finance down by 3.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 1734.4 points or 3.14% to 53,505.00, Hang Seng declined 461.42 points or 1.8% to 25,564.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 458.22 points or 1.33% to 33,890.36, KOSPI dropped 128.53 points or 2.17% to 5,796.50, Shanghai Composite fell 38.75 points or 0.95% to 4,024.23 and Straits Times was down by 23.57 points or 0.47% to 4,978.60.
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