The Indian equity market faced intense selling pressure on Friday as geopolitical tensions flared following Pakistan's missile strikes targeting several Indian cities. The missiles were successfully intercepted by Indian air defense units, but the escalation triggered blackouts in border towns and heightened fears of a full-scale war between the two nations.
As of 12 PM, the BSE Sensex plummeted 801.31 points (1%) to 79,533.50, while the Nifty50 dropped 237.25 points (0.98%) to 24,036.55. In the opening deals, the Sensex hit a low of 78,968 and Nifty hit a low of 23,936. Except for L&T India, Tata Motors and SBI, then remaining 27 stocks in the Sensex pack were trading in the red. ICICI Bank, Powergrid, UltraTech were under severe selling pressure.
Broader markets also witnessed sharp declines with the Midcap and Smallcap indices falling about 1% each.
Seema Srivastava, Senior Research Analyst at SMC Global Securities, said, “The escalating tensions between India and Pakistan in 2025, marked by events such as the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor, have introduced fresh volatility into the Indian stock market. However, historical trends suggest that Indian equities, particularly the Nifty 50, have demonstrated resilience during past geopolitical conflicts, with corrections typically limited to 5–10% and recoveries often swift.”
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said that normal circumstances, on a day like this, the market would have suffered deep cuts but this is unlikely due to two reasons.
“One, the conflict, so far, has demonstrated India’s clear superiority in conventional war fare, and therefore, further escalation of the conflict will inflict huge damage to Pakistan. Two, the market is inherently resilient supported by global and domestic macros. Weak dollar and potentially weakening US and Chinese economies are good for the Indian market,” added Vijayakumar.