Stock Market Update: The global markets’ negative attitude, coupled with the growing likelihood of an intensifying confrontation between Iran and its allies and Israel and its allies, caused the benchmark stock indexes in India to open lower on Friday.
The BSE Sensex was down 252 points, or 0.31 percent, at opening bell, while the Nifty 50 was down 68 points, or 0.27 percent, at 25,181.
On Friday, the markets in Asia-Pacific region saw mixed results after Wall Street’s weaker overnight finish due to investor caution about growing tensions in the Middle East ahead of the US payrolls report for September.
While Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.11 percent and the larger Topix gained 0.27 percent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sank 0.98 percent.
The Kosdaq had a 1.61 percent increase, while the Kospi saw a 0.78 percent increase in South Korea.
While mainland Chinese markets were closed until October 8, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index had a 0.48 percent increase.
Aside from that, tampid trade in equities markets around the US and other key locations contributed to the global stock market’s Thursday decline, while growing geopolitical tension resulting from the Middle East war drove up oil prices.
The major indexes on Wall Street ended the day down after opening the day marginally higher. Data reported on Thursday revealed a rise in US unemployment claims, pointing to a softening labor market despite robust growth in the services sector.
This Friday is the deadline for the highly anticipated September nonfarm payroll data.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.17 percent to 5,699.94, the Nasdaq Composite sank 0.04 percent to 17,918.48, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.44 percent to 42,011.59.
After taking insufficient data from the bloc’s business activity report, investors sold European equities, which ended the day down 0.93 percent. The MSCI global stock index dropped 0.39 percent to 842.18.
Israel attacked Beirut early on Thursday, the first of several skirmishes with Iran-aligned Hezbollah in the last year. When asked whether he would back Israel attacking Iran’s oil infrastructure, US President Joe Biden said, “We’re talking about that,” to reporters on Thursday. “Nothing is going to happen today,” he continued.
At $77.62 a barrel, Brent oil futures ended the day 5.03 percent higher. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures for the US finished 5.15 percent higher at $73.71.
