Stock market in red: ₹3 lakh crore wiped out amidst US-Iran war tensions

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): The direct impact of the US-Iran war and the turmoil in the Middle East is now being felt on the Indian economy. On Friday, the last trading day of the week, the Indian stock market experienced such a devastating earthquake that investors' hard-earned money worth nearly ₹3 lakh crore was wiped out in the blink of an eye. The market was hit by such a devastating tsunami of selling that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)'s key index, the Sensex, plummeted 1,097 points to 78,918.90. The National Stock Exchange's (NSE) Nifty 50 also plunged 315 points to close at 24,450.45. This "Black Friday" has left everyone from stock market giants to ordinary investors in despair.

The biggest reason behind this chaos and historic decline is the dangerous spark of war that erupted in West Asia, which has now escalated into a catastrophe. Last weekend, the US and Israel launched a devastating attack on Iran, killing Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Following this high-profile and sensational death, Iran, consumed by vengeance, has launched a series of retaliatory attacks on Gulf countries. This war has severely disrupted supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, considered the world's largest and most important route for crude oil supplies. This has created widespread panic among foreign investors, who are withdrawing their funds from the Indian market and fleeing.

This alarming tension in the Middle East has fueled crude oil prices, which crossed the dangerous $80 per barrel mark overnight. However, there was a slight respite in futures trading on Friday morning, when Brent crude fell 2.4 percent to $83.21, and WTI crude fell 3 percent to $78.54 per barrel. Meanwhile, US stock markets have been buffeted throughout the week by fears of war and inflation. Although US futures showed slight stability on Friday, with Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 futures posting very modest gains, these weak signals from the global market and the crude oil shock have completely crippled the Indian stock market.