Sensex Plunges 2,300+ Points as Brent Crude Hits $114 Amid Escalating West Asia War
3 min readMumbaiUpdated: Mar 9, 2026 10:59 AM IST
The benchmark stock indices crashed 3% early on Monday as the war in the Middle East stretched for a second week, which resulted in crude oil prices crossing the $115 mark for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The sell-off is widespread, with all broader market indices also down 2-3%, wiping out over 12 lakh crore in investor wealth.
The NSE’s Nifty 50 index is down 686.85 points or 2.8% at 23,663.60 points at around 10:30 AM, the lowest level since April 2025 when US President Donald Trump had first announced reciprocal tariffs. The BSE Sensex index is at 76,727.99 points, down 2,190.92 points or 2.8%. The entire Sensex is in red. The India VIX, which indicates market volatility, surged 22% to over 24 points early in the session, the highest level in nearly 2 years.
This comes after a sell-off around global bourses. The US markets fell 1-2% back on Friday. All Asian markets started the week on a weak foot, with indices in Japan and South Korea nosediving 7-8%.
The rupee also fell to 92.32 against the dollar, a decline of 57 paise, on Monday morning as the rising crude oil prices impacted the forex market sentiment. The rupee has been under pressure since the Middle East war started on February 27, forcing the Reserve Bank of India to intervene in a big way by selling dollars to prevent a crash.
Shares of IndiGo operator Interglobe Aviation fell 7%, the largest decline in the Nifty 50, weighed down by rising crude oil prices. The stock has lost over 16% since the war began early in the month. Shares of L&T, another name adversely affected by the Middle East war, lost another 5%. Others, such as SBI, Shriram Finance, and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, were down 5-6%.
All of NSE’s sectoral indices were deep in the red. Public-sector banks lost over 5%. Automobiles, financial services, and media were down over 3% each. The sharp fall is likely due to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continuing to dump Indian equities during these uncertain times, according to BofA.
A quick resolution of the conflict is thus key, and the Indian market may rally sharply if that materialises rapidly, BofA added. On a technical level, the Nifty 50 has to stay above the 23,500 levels, and the index may fall to the March 2025 low near 22,000 and the November 2023 low near 19,000 if that is breached, said VK Vijaykumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
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The uneasiness around markets across the globe after crude oil futures climbed above the $115 per barrel mark as the war intensified in the Middle East. Israel, alongside the US, has conducted targeted bombings in multiple parts of Iran, and the latter has retaliated by bombing US bases across multiple countries in the region. Regional groups such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah have also joined this violent conflict, further adding to the tensions.
Iran has also maintained its unofficial chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, with ships and vessels travelling through the trade route finding it difficult to get goods insured, leading to a majority of shipping companies halting their operation in the region.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
