Why Sensex fell over 1,000 points today: 3 major reasons

Indian benchmark indices declined on September 30, with Sensex falling 1000 points and Nifty dropping below 26,000.

Indian benchmark indices fell today (September 30) as Sensex dropped 1000 points and Nifty slipped below the 26,000 mark. The downturn was driven by Reliance Industries and IT stocks, causing a total market capitalisation loss of ₹2.73 lakh crore to ₹475.2 lakh crore.

Stock market today: A bird flies past a screen displaying the Sensex results on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai. (Reuters)

Major losers in the stock market today

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank dragged Sensex down by 535 points while Bharti Airtel, M&M, SBI, TCS, Infosys and Tata Motors also fell. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, IT, Media, Realty, Healthcare and Oil & Gas fell by up to 1.6%.

Here are top 4 reasons behind the stock market fall today:

1. Foreign investors move to China markets

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) shifted their focus to the Chinese market after a series of economic stimulus measures announced by the government. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose by 3.0% while the Shanghai Composite surged by 4.4%, adding to last week's 13% rally. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Market is likely to move into a consolidation phase in the near-term. One significant factor that is influencing foreign portfolios is the outperformance of the Chinese stocks which is reflected in the massive surge in the Hang Seng index by around 18 % in September. This surge has been triggered by hopes of revival in the Chinese economy in response to the monetary and fiscal stimulus announced by the Chinese authorities."

2. Israel- Lebanon tensions

Escalation of Israeli strikes across Lebanon added uncertainty to global markets even though oil prices have been kept in check by potential supply increases. Brent crude futures were up by 0.71% and US West Texas Intermediate increasing by 0.63%.

3. US data making investors nervous

Stock markets are closely watching for signals from US data including job openings, private hiring numbers and ISM surveys on manufacturing and services, which are all due this week.